Introducing OpenLaw’s Integration Framework: Making it Easy to Integrate Third Party Services into OpenLaw OpenLaw Follow Aug 6, 2019 · 3 min read

Today we’re offering a sneak peek into OpenLaw’s forthcoming integration framework. Once released, any third-party service can be incorporated into an OpenLaw agreement, including third-party e-signature platforms like DocuSign and third party oracle services, like ChainLink, in a snap.

OpenLaw transforms legal agreements into structured computable files — data objects that can be read from, written to, or interacted with. As a result, legal agreements no longer need to be trapped in dusty filing cabinets or hard to parse Microsoft Word Files or PDFs. They can operate like software.

To extend the usefulness of OpenLaw, we’re previewing OpenLaw’s new “integration service,” which gives contracting parties the ability to register and interact with any third party service. We show how OpenLaw can be easily extended to handle electronic signatures provided by the popular service DocuSign.

As shown in the above video, using our integration framework, we were able to register DocuSign as a third party service for electronic signatures by filling out a simple form.

Once integrated, parties can sign the agreement using DocuSign and can automatically trigger the execution of smart contracts as part of their agreements. With this functionality, the expressive power of smart contracts takes another step towards the mainstream. With a routine email from DocuSign, parties can trigger smart contracts and incorporate third party oracles services, such as Chainlink, to build next-generation legal agreements.

This is just the beginning. Integrating other e-signature solutions into OpenLaw (like HelloSign, Adobe, etc.) becomes a simple task. And developers can read, write, and pull various information from an OpenLaw agreement and port that information into third-party systems (e.g., ERP Systems, Excel, Google Sheets)

OpenLaw’s Integration Framework

The process of registering a third party service into OpenLaw’s Integrator’s API is straightforward. The first step is to access the Admin tools of your instance and click on the Integrators Service tab. At the moment, we are offering integration into “Common and Signature” services as part of our framework. “Common” is any service that can perform any external computation (i.e., CoinMarketCap) and Signature, any service that performs some electronic signature services. Both third party services are then verified in the OpenLaw Virtual Machine.

For the DocuSign example, we ran DocuSign locally by using the DocuSign java client where we then sent a request to sign on DocuSign (via email). The responses from DocuSign are then sent back to OpenLaw VM. The ‘type signature’ has a specific ABI (which can not be changed by the user) and a service of the address.

Each external service must provide a public endpoint secured with a shared secret which will be used by the Integrator’s API to send requests to this service. In order to call an external service for e-signature one can use a new variable type declaration: ExternalSignature(serviceName: “DocuSign”) in the agreement. It will trigger the email DocuSign signature notice, as one would typically use when leveraging the DocuSign service.

Once both parties sign the agreement via DocuSign, the signatures are propagated to Integrator’s API and then stored in Openlaw VM and smart contract calls declared in the agreement are executed.

DocuSign was a great first step to test or integration framework — however, as mentioned, it can extend beyond e-signature solutions. Through this easy plug-and-play framework, we can think about integrating with other third party services. These third-party services range from both traditional legal technology, such as e-signature platforms, and blockchain-centric applications, like oracle services, which can be seamlessly woven into any legal contract.

We’ll have this integration framework available for administrators of private instances in the near future, but if you have any questions, comments or suggestions on potential integrations — we’d be happy to discuss. Just shoot us a note!

Join the Movement

We’re arranging the world’s commercial transactions. Using OpenLaw, anyone can more efficiently engage in commercial transactions, all while leveraging next-generation blockchain-based smart contracts.

To learn more about OpenLaw, check out our site and documentation for an overview and detailed reference guides. You can also find us at hello@openlaw.io or tune in in our community Slack channel. Follow our Medium and Twitter for further announcements, tutorials, and helpful tips over the upcoming weeks and months.