Dispatcher Deployment and Link Lifecycle
How your Dispatcher deployment relates to the signing, workflow, and delivery links your recipients receive, and what happens to outstanding links when you redeploy or move your Dispatcher.
This page explains how your Dispatcher deployment relates to the REFRACT eSign, REFRACT Workflow, and REFRACT Delivery links your recipients receive, and what happens to outstanding links when you redeploy or change your Dispatcher. Read this before redeploying a production Dispatcher.
Summary
Redeploying your Dispatcher in place is safe and invisible to outstanding links. Changing your Dispatcher's address (the URL recipients' links point to) requires a new deployment session and will invalidate links that have already been sent. Expired or invalidated links show recipients a clean "link expired, request a new link" message, not an error.
How Signing, Workflow, and Delivery Links Reach Your Dispatcher
When your Dispatcher creates a REFRACT eSign, REFRACT Workflow, or REFRACT Delivery link, that link routes recipient actions back to your Dispatcher deployment. This address is established during your onboarding deployment session, tied to your license, and does not need manual configuration afterward.
Because this address is fixed at deployment, the lifecycle of your Dispatcher deployment determines what happens to links that are already out in the world.
Redeploying in Place: Safe, No Action Needed
If you redeploy your Dispatcher to the same application (a code update, a configuration change, a restart, or a scale operation), nothing about link routing changes. Your Dispatcher comes back at the same address, and all outstanding signing, workflow, and delivery links continue to work normally.
This is the common case. Routine redeployments are invisible to your recipients and require no re-issuing of links.
Changing Your Dispatcher's Address: Requires a New Deployment Session
If your Dispatcher's address changes, for example if you delete and recreate the application under a different name or move it to a different location, this is treated as a new deployment and requires a new deployment session to reconnect it to your license.
Consequences to plan for:
- Outstanding links break. Any signing, workflow, or delivery link already sent to a recipient points at your previous Dispatcher location. After an address change, those links can no longer reach your Dispatcher and will show recipients the "link expired" message.
- New links work once the new deployment is connected. Links created from that point forward route to the new location correctly.
- Recipients with outstanding links must be re-sent. If you have signing sessions or deliveries in flight when you change your Dispatcher's address, plan to re-issue those links afterward.
Treat an address change like a maintenance window
Complete or drain any in-flight signing, workflow, or delivery sessions first where possible, then complete the new deployment session, then re-issue any links that were still outstanding.
When a Recipient Opens an Expired or Invalidated Link
Whether a link has passed its own expiry or was invalidated by a Dispatcher address change, the recipient sees a clean, self-explanatory "link expired, request a new link" message. This is expected behavior, not a fault or an outage.
If a recipient reports this message:
- Confirm whether the link is simply old (past its normal validity window) or whether the Dispatcher address changed.
- Issue the recipient a fresh link. New links generated by your current Dispatcher deployment route correctly.
There is no error page and no support escalation required for an expired link. Re-issuing is the resolution.
Normal validity windows are configurable and vary by product: see Session Expiry for REFRACT eSign, Delivery Modes for REFRACT Delivery, and Portal Access & OTP for REFRACT Workflow.
Quick Reference
| Situation | Outstanding Links | Action Needed |
|---|---|---|
| Redeploy in place (same address) | Keep working | None |
| Restart, scale, or configuration change | Keep working | None |
| Address change (delete-and-recreate, move) | Break, show "link expired" | Complete a new deployment session, then re-issue outstanding links |
| Link past its normal validity window | Shows "link expired" | Issue a fresh link |
Planning a Dispatcher Migration?
If you are planning to move or recreate your Dispatcher deployment and need guidance on draining in-flight sessions first, contact your REFRACT onboarding team before you begin.
Audit Logs
How to configure REFRACT PDF's audit system. Covers all three audit tiers -- basic (SharePoint JSONL), blob (Azure Blob AppendBlob), and enterprise (Service Bus + Audit Worker) -- including the AuditEvent schema, file naming, and setup steps for each tier.
Payload Structure
Complete reference for the top-level REFRACT PDF JSON payload. Covers templateId, metadata, theme, header, footer, layoutSchema, templateSettings, hierarchyRules, and all other recognized top-level keys.