Skip to main content

Application Forms

An application form is the representation of a commercial insurance prospect within the Bold Penguin ecosystem.

An application form is made up of one or more question sets and their answers. They provide carriers with the data they need to evaluate risk and provide a quote back to the brokerage.

Each application form has a public reference_ID (xxx-xxx-xxx) for consumers that will remain constant through the life of the application and an internal, globally unique identifier (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx) that will change as the application moves through the application flows.

For most purposes when interacting with the Bold Penguin API, capturing the reference_ID is sufficient for tracking and analytics purposes.

Application Flows​

Application forms flow through either the public facing Consumer Portal directly driven by the end consumer, or the private facing Partner Portal driven by the agent on the consumer's behalf.

Partner flow​

Creating Partner Application Forms​

In this flow, an authenticated agent initiates an application form and interacts with it directly within the Partner Portal.

sequenceDiagram Agent->>Authentication API: Authenticate Authentication API-->>Agent: Receive Token Agent->>Partner API: Create Application Form Partner API-->>Agent: Application Form Id Agent->>Partner API: Retrieve Application Form
  1. An authenticated agent requests an quote start from an internal system (CRM, AMS, etc.)
  2. The internal system retrieves a token from the Authenticate endpoint
  3. The internal system calls the Create Application Form endpoint
  4. The Create Application Form endpoint returns an application form ID
  5. The internal system uses the application form ID to construct a URL in the Partner Portal
  6. The agent is redirected to the application form in the Partner Portal

Retrieving Partner Application Forms​

For future access, the internal system uses the Get Latest Application Form endpoint to retrieve a redirect URL to the most recent version of this application form in the Partner Portal.

Updating Partner Application Forms​

To update application forms, see our Update Application Form API for configuration information.

Consumer Flow​

Creating Consumer Application Forms​

Since the end consumer is not authenticated, this flow requires single-use URLs to provide additional security for interacting with the application form.

sequenceDiagram Consumer Portal->>Authentication API: Authenticate Authentication API-->>Consumer Portal: Receive Token Consumer Portal->>Partner API: Create Guest User Partner API-->>Consumer Portal: Guest User Application Form URL Consumer Portal->>Partner API: Retrieve Application Form
  1. A consumer accesses the storefront in the Consumer Portal
  2. The Consumer Portal retrieves a token from the Authenticate endpoint
  3. The Consumer Portal calls the Create Application Form endpoint with a request to create a guest user
  4. The Create Application Form endpoint returns a single-use URL for the consumer to access the application form
  5. The Consumer Portal redirects the consumer to the application form URL provided

Retrieving Consumer Application Forms​

Future access to this form requires information supplied by the consumer (reference ID, last name, zip code) to retrieve another single-use redirect URL for a Consumer Portal using the Get Consumer Application Form) endpoint.

Updating Consumer Application Forms​

To update application forms, see our Update Application Form API for configuration information.

Application forms become inactive after 3 hours has elapsed since the last activity on the form.

Expanded Partner View​

The expanded partner view process flow depicts the interactions between APIs, Terminal, and Webhook events throughout the application process. The API column depicts the programmatic entry points into the application flow as an agent interacts with an application form. The Terminal column is an expanded representation of the partner flow, and is the core path for an agent interacting with the application form from creation to completion. Webhook Events are the events Bold Penguin emits on the backside as actions are triggered in the terminal.