Overview
Workflow builder can be used to add an approval to a state or edit an existing approval in a state and manage the approval reviewer assignment.
Select an existing approval in the state to edit the approval.
Reviewers for the approval can be managed when adding or editing an approval in workflow builder by choosing to one of the following options
Once a Reviewers option is chosen, it can be configured in a number of ways. These are different for each Reviewer option. For example,
setting a minimum number of reviewers (Minimum approvals) who must undertake and agree on the approval decision before a transition occurs
limiting reviewers who can be assigned/undertake an approval to list of users and/or users who are a member of a list of user groups
setting users who MUST undertake the review
The Advanced dropdown also includes options to
require Credentials for a user to enable the approval buttons in the workflow popup
Remember reviewers to reassign previous users as reviewers if the workflow returns to the current state
Enable Roles for reviewers allows an assigning user to add a role descriptor for a reviewer when using the workflow popup to assign a reviewer
Assignment of user as reviewers are configured for each individual approval.
Reviewers
Reviewers for the approval can be managed when adding or editing an approval in workflow builder.
There are three options to manage the reviewers for the approval.
In the Edit approval/Add approval panel the Reviewers for the approval, by default, are set so that Anyone can approve if the user has view and edit permission for the page or blog post.
If you choose to configure the approval to Limit who can approve and/or assign you can use the following options
Workflow builder approval icon and reviewer assignment
The display of the approval in workflow builder is appended with an icon to indicate the overall reviewer assignment process.
Approval icon in workflow builder | Approval reviewer assignment |
|---|---|
 | No option for manual assignment of a user as a reviewer using the workflow popup on the page |
 | Option for manual assignment of a user as a reviewer using the workflow popup on the page |
 | Reviewers preassigned by the workflow and set in the approval configuration |
 | Credentials required for each reviewer to enable the workflow popup Approve/Reject buttons |
Anyone can approve
Allows any user with view and edit permission for the content to undertake the approval decision using the workflow popup.
One user decision using the workflow popup Approve or Reject button will cause the workflow to transition to the destination state (if the approved/rejected transition is configured for the state).
Anyone can approve can be configured to require more than one reviewer decision before a transition can take place by setting the number of reviewer decisions in workflow builder by adding a value for Minimum approvals.
This sets a requirement for the set number of reviewers to undertake the approval AND agree for the approval transition to occur.
Empty reviewer avatars for the set number of required reviewers are added to the workflow popup on transition into the state.
Each user avatar and their review decision is added to workflow popup until the minimum number of reviews have been made and the transition occurs.
A reviewer who has already undertaken an approval decision can change their decision if the transition has not yet occurred.
Limit who can approve and/or assign reviewers
The approval can be configured to limit the users who undertake the approval and/or assign users as reviewers depending on your needs for the approval process in the workflow state.
Choosing the Limit who can approve and/or assign reviewers option displays the following options to manage limiting reviewers who an approve or users who assign reviewers.
Users cannot be assigned through UI
Available as a Reviewers option when choosing to Limit who can approve and/or assign.
Prevents any user from undertaking the approval unless the user is added as a reviewer in the approval configuration.
This option can be used to add users who can undertake the approval by adding either/both
a list of one or more Confluence users as Users that can review
a list of one or more Confluence user groups as Groups that can review
Only one user approval decision is required to action the approval approved or rejected transition.
This setting includes the Users that are not allowed to review option. Add one or more users to these named users from undertaking the approval. This useful if you need to exclude a user who is a member of a Confluence user group added as a Group that can review.
The Invert option can be checked to exclude for each of Users that can review and Groups that can review to prevent these users from undertaking the review.
In the example above the users who act as a reviewer are
two listed users - matilde enios and suni conn
users who are members of the Confluence user group controlled_documents_approvers
The approval buttons will be enabled in the workflow popup for these users when viewing the page or blogpost in the approval state.
The approval buttons will be disabled for all other users, including any user not allowed to review.
One user cannot act as a reviewer - Rab Appfire - even if they are a member of the added user group or added to the list of users who can review.
You can use this option to exclude specific users from being a reviewer but allow any any other user with edit permission to undertake the approval by simply adding the list of users who you don’t want to undertake the approval to the Users that not allowed to review dialog box/
At least one user or user group must be added in one of the three dialog boxes in the workflow builder approval editor to Apply this setting for the approval.
This option is similar to Anyone can approve - one user decision will action the workflow approval transition but this one reviewer can only be a user from the list of users or a member of the Confluence user group added to the approval editor in workflow builder.
The Users cannot be assigned through UI option can also be configured to require more than one reviewer decision before a transition can take place by setting the number of reviewer decisions in workflow builder by adding a value for Minimum approvals.
Users can be assigned through UI
Available as a Reviewers option when choosing to Limit who can approve and/or assign.
Allows one or more users to be manually assigned as a reviewer by another user using the workflow popup.
Choose the + Add reviewer option to open the Assign dialog box.
use the search box to find a user
check the box for the searched user (and if required add a helpful comment for the reviewer)
choose Assign
The Assign dialog box includes the current approval name in the title, for example, Assign for Review where Review is the name of the approval,
The assigned user avatar is added to the workflow popup.
Once at least one user has been assigned as a reviewer the approval is disabled for any other user.
Any comment added when assigning the user is
included in a workflow notification to the assigned user
displayed in the approval pending entry in the user profile document actions report
Until a user is assigned as a reviewer, the approval can be undertaken by any user (with edit permission)
once a reviewer has been assigned, all other reviewers must be assigned to undertake the approval
additional users can be assigned to the approval until the transition occurs
an assigned reviewer can be unassigned if they have not undertaken an approval decision
The users that can be assigned as reviewers and the users that can assign reviewers can be limited by adding users and/or user groups to the approval.
You can also
use the Invert option to exclude users and/or user group members from being assigned as a reviewer
use the Invert option to exclude users and/or user group members from assigning a user as a reviewer
add one or usernames to the Users that are not allowed to review option to exclude these users from undertaking the approval
set a Minimum approvals value to require this number of reviewers to undertake and agree the approval before the approval transition can take place
Setting a value for Minimum approvals value will prevent a single initial approval decision from a user before any user is assigned causing an approval transition .
For example, an approval configured to allow users to be assigned using the workflow popup and with a requirement for three reviewers to undertake the approval and agree can be undertaken by an unassigned reviewer.
The approval decision for the transition requires three reviewers to agree
the initial decision is displayed in the workflow popup but there is no transition
all further reviewers must first be assigned
The Users can be assigned through UI setting for the approval can be applied without limiting the users/user groups who can be assigned as reviewers and/or limiting the users/user groups who can assign allowing any Confluence user to be manually assigned as a reviewer using the workflow popup by any Confluence user with view and edit permission for the page or blog post.
One or more users and/or user groups can be added to the approval editor to limit the users who can be assigned as reviewers.
Users must be assigned to approve
This setting requires that a user must be assigned to undertake the review using the workflow popup. The choice of assignees is limited to the users or members of the user groups added to the approval editor.
Available as a Reviewers option when choosing to Limit who can approve and/or assign.
Allows one or more users to be manually assigned as a reviewer by another user using the workflow popup.
The approval can only be saved with this reviewer configuration if at least one user/user group is added to the One or more reviewers must be assigned from this list option.
You can also
add one or usernames to the Users that are not allowed to review options to exclude these users from undertaking the approval
add Users who can assign reviewers or Groups who can assign reviewers
check the Invert option to exclude users and/or user group members who can assign reviewers
set a Minimum approvals value to require this number of reviewers to undertake and agree the approval before the approval transition can take place
Setting a value for Minimum approvals value will prevent a single initial approval decision from a user who has not been assigned causing an approval transition .
Only one user must be assigned to approve
Allows ONLY one user to be manually assigned as a reviewer by another user using the workflow popup. The single assigned reviewer decision will cause the workflow approval transition.
Available as a Reviewers option when choosing to Limit who can approve and/or assign.
The approval on the page or blog post
is disabled in the workflow popup until a single user is assigned as the reviewer
once a single user is assigned no other users can be assigned as a reviewer
the assigned reviewer can be unassigned if they have not yet undertaken the approval decision
The approval can only be saved with this reviewer configuration if at least one user/user group is added to the Only one reviewer must be assigned from this list option.
The single user that must be assigned as the reviewer must be limited by adding users and/or user groups to the approval in the approval editor.
You can also
add one or usernames to the Users that are not allowed to review options to exclude these users from undertaking the approval
add Users who can assign reviewers or Groups who can assign reviewers
check the Invert option to exclude users and/or user group members who can assign reviewers
Set the reviewers that have to approve
The Set the reviewers that have to approve option
automatically assigns set users and/or members of set Confluence user groups as reviewers and
requires all the assigned reviewers undertake and agree the approval for an approval transition to occur
On selecting, options are displayed to add the users and/or user groups who must approve.
Add users and/or user groups for the workflow to Automatically assign users and/or Automatically assign groups as reviewers on transition into the approval state.
At least one user or one user group must added as reviewers.
Users added as reviewers are assigned as reviewers for the approval on the transition into the workflow approval state. The avatars for these users are added to the workflow popup.
The approval is disabled for all other users - users not listed or not members of the groups listed are automatically excluded from undertaking the approval.
Adding a Confluence user group with a large number of users and/or, a large number of individual users, may cause a ‘logjam’ in your document approval process as all users assigned will need to undertake and agree the approval.
Reviewer Credentials
Each approval can be set to require user authentication
Open the Advanced dropdown options.
User authentication (or e-signature) for reviewer can be set to require either:
a password
a username and password
Users will see the credentials prompt in the workflow popup if identity authentication is required for the reviewer.
The Approve and Reject buttons in the workflow popup will be disabled until the user credentials are added. The credentials are validated when an approval decision is made by the user.
A global administrator can set the default credentials required for approvals in a workflow in the instance. Identity authentication can be
Confluence username and password
Confluence username and a signing token generated by a third-party app
Sticky assigned reviewers
The reviewers assigned to an approval can be stored and automatically assigned to the next occurrence of the current approval.
Reviewer roles
You can also enable for the approval the option for reviewers to be given a reviewer role when they are assigned in the workflow popup.
The option to add a reviewer role is displayed in the workflow popup after a user is selected to be assigned to the approval.
Assignee roles are displayed as a lozenge in the workflow popup when the assignee views the page.
Assignee role names once added are retained in the workflow and are available in a role dropdown menu when assigning users.
Once a role has been added to a workflow in a space, the roles will be available to add when assigning users to an approval for all reviewer role-enabled approvals for each workflow in the space.
Saving changes to an approval
To amend changes to a state approval, choose Apply.
To avoid the loss of a state update to the workflow you must then
add the changes to the workflow by choosing Save in the Navigation panel
add the updated workflow to the content by selecting Exit in the Navigation panel