Overview
A Comala Document Management workflow helps you manage the review and approvals process for content on a page or blog post.
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The simple workflow in the diagram above consists of two states: Review and Approved.
The workflow allows you to:
ensure that content is reviewed and signed-off
assign specific users as reviewers for the content reviews in the states
Only one workflow can be active on an individual page or blog post at any one time.
Workflows in Comala Document Management
Comala Document Management for Cloud has the choice of at least three installed workflows. Each of these workflows has different states and transitions.
Each of these workflows builds on the simple workflow above - adding more states and transitions, setting an expiry period for approved content and automatically assigning content reviewers to provide greater control of your document development and management.
You can also create your own custom workflow.
Adding a workflow to content
You can add a workflow to your content in two ways
individually add a copy of a workflow to a single page or blog post (page mode workflow)
add and manage a workflow across all the content in the space (space mode workflow)
Space mode workflows allow greater central management of your content and are the recommended way to add and apply a Comala Document Management workflow for use in a production environment.
Once Comala Document Management app is added to your instance you can add a workflow to your content by choosing the Add Workflow breadcrumb added to the content subtitle.
In the popup, choose either Add Workflow to this Page or Add Workflow to this Space to open the workflow picker.
Only space administrators will see the option to add the workflow across the space.
You can also
use the page tools menu to add a workflow to an individual page or blog post
use the space tools Document Management dashboard (if you are a space admin) to add a workflow across the content in your space
Space workflows
A space admin can configure a space to add and apply a workflow to all content in the space.
The space admin simply enables the current workflow. Once enabled it will be added and applied to all existing content in the space. The workflow will also automatically be added to new content.
Comala Document Management only allows one space workflow to be applied to content unless each workflow is configured to be added and applied to different content. This maintains the requirement that only one workflow can be active on an individual page or blog post at any one time.
Workflow added and applied to a page
Once a workflow is added and applied to content
automatically defines content as in one of the workflow states
content can be can be moved (transition) from the current to a destination state
transitions can be added to occur based on an approval decision (approve/reject); updating of the content; or expiry of the content
a single state can be set as the final or approved state for the content
Content with an added workflow will have a breadcrumb for the current workflow state added to the content page sub-title.
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A user's key interaction with the workflow added to content is through the workflow popup accessed using this breadcrumb.
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Workflow states can be hidden from the progress tracker path.
In the example, the Rejected state is hidden. The hidden state will be displayed in the workflow popup if it is a destination for a content review decision.
The hidden state will also be displayed in the popup progress tracker path when the workflow content is in that state.
A workflow added to a page cannot be edited on the page. A custom workflow can only be edited in the space settings Document Management dashboard and then reapplied as a page workflow.
For the QMS workflow, the In Approval state has a content review (approval). On a transition into the In Approval state the QMS workflow assigns users as reviewers for the approval, these reviewers are required to authenticate their identity using credentials.
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The workflow popup will have the available options for moving the workflow from the current state to destination state. The In Approval state transition will occur based a user Approve or Reject decision as part of an approval.
The movement between these states is called a transition - these transitions can occur based on events in the workflow such as approving content, rejecting content, updating content or content reaching a set expiry date.
Customizing a workflow using workflow builder
Each of the existing workflows can be customized using the workflow builder visual editing tool.
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Workflow builder allows you to
add new states to your workflow
edit existing state names and descriptions
state transitions and approvals
You can customize individual approvals to
require reviewer credentials
allow/disable the assignment of reviewers from the workflow popup
set the reviewers for an approval
You can also use workflow builder to add JSON triggers to respond to workflow events, for example, to generate custom notifications.
A workflow can only be customized using workflow builder or the JSON editor in the space settings Document Management dashboard.