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Getting Started with Comala Document Management for Cloud
- Robert Alexander Marshall
Overview
A Comala Document Management workflow helps you manage the review and approvals process for a pages or blog posts in a Confluence space.
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The simple workflow in the diagram above consists of two states: Review and Approved.
On the page editors can view the current page progress with an added workflow byline and manage the approval process using the workflow popup.
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.
A workflow can be added and applied to an individual page or one workflow can be applied by a space administrator to all the pages and blog posts in a space.
Comala Document Management workflows
Comala Document Management for Cloud has the choice of at least three installed workflows. On installing the app these are available in all the spaces in your Confluence site.
A space administrator can manage and apply a workflow to all documents in a space using the space settings Document Management dashboard.
If there is no enabled workflow in the dashboard, a workflow can be applied on a page-by-page basis in the space.
The installed workflows are
Each workflow has a different document management workflow process to provide greater control of your document development and management
change the current space workflow using the Manage Workflows button
enable and apply the space workflow to all the pages in the space by moving the grey X slider to a green tick slider
Each workflow includes
different workflow states and transitions allowing different process milestones and process routes
expiry due dates for approved content
options for the assignment of users to an approval as content reviewers
You can also create your own custom workflows to manage your own bespoke document management process and meet your business, team or compliance needs
choose Edit Workflow to make changes to the current workflow using the workflow builder visual builder or code editor.
You can edit the one of the installed workflows but changes will need to be saved as a custom workflow with a different name. The installed workflows cannot be overwritten.
Adding a workflow to content
You can add and apply a workflow to your pages and blogs in a space in two ways
individually add a copy of a workflow to a single page or blog post on a page-by-page basis(page mode workflow)
add and apply a workflow across all the documents in the space (space mode workflow)
The Add Workflow to this Space option is only displayed to a user with administrator permission.
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.
Using the workflow on a page
When a workflow is added and applied to a page or blog post the workflow automatically defines the page or blog post to be in the initial workflow state.
A workflow state status byline is added to the page indicating the current workflow state.
A user's key interaction with the workflow added to content is through the workflow popup accessed using this breadcrumb.
Content can be can be moved from the current workflow state to a destination state using the workflow popup - a transition.
A single workflow state can be set as the final state for the content. The page or blog post in this state is usually your approved content for wider audience consumption.
The available transition from the current state is displayed in the workflow popup.
The transition can be based on one or more user approval decisions (approve/reject). This lets your reviewer(s) focus on the approval decision itself as the state change is configured in, and managed by, the workflow.
You can create a workflow that includes a state transition requiring the user to manually select the destination state using the workflow popup.
Other transitions can be actioned automatically by the workflow for example
on updating the page or blog post
on the expiry of a due date for the page or blog post whilst in a specific workflow state
Transitions can also occur based on other workflow events by editing a workflow to add one or more JSON triggers to a workflow.
Page editors can view the workflow changes for each page using the Document Activity option from the page tools menu.
The Document Activity option is displayed in the page tools menu only when a workflow is active on the page.
Add a workflow to an individual page or blog post
Once Comala Document Management app is added to your site you can
add a workflow to a page or blog post by choosing the Add Workflow breadcrumb added to the document subtitle.
In the popup
choose Add Workflow to this Page to open the workflow picker
By default the workflows included with the app are displayed. The picker will also display any custom workflows added to the space document management dashboard.
choose Apply to add the workflow to the current page
The workflow state breadcrumb byline for the initial state in the workflow is added to the page.
A user with view and edit permission for the page can choose the state breadcrumb byline to open the workflow popup.
You can also add a workflow to pages and blog posts using the page tools menu Add a Page Workflow option.
In addition to the document activity report for the page, a space administrator can track the workflow activity on pages and blog posts across the space using the Document Report option in the Confluence side bar menu.
Space workflows
A space admin can add and apply a workflow to all content in the space using the space settings Document Management dashboard.
The space admin simply enables the current workflow using the slider.
Once enabled, the workflow is added and applied to all existing pages and blog posts in the space. This active workflow is also automatically added to any new pages and blog posts created in the space.
a different workflow can be added to the space by choosing Manage Workflows
current workflow can be edited and saved as a custom workflow by choosing Edit Workflow
Workflow with e-signature authentication for approval reviewers
The Quality Management (QMS) Workflow is one of the workflows available to add and apply to pages and blog posts on installation of Comala Document Management to your Confluence site.
The initial state on adding the workflow is the DrafT state. Documents must be approved to transition to the In Approval state.
The In Approval state requires reviewers to undertake content review (approval) and after approval documents are transitioned to the final APPROVED workflow state.
On a transition into the In Approval state the QMS workflow automatically assigns users as reviewers for the approval. These reviewers are required to authenticate their identity using credentials before the Approve and Reject buttons are enabled in the workflow popup.
E-signature authentication is required in the workflow popup to enable the approval buttons.
Reporting
Easily view the status and progress of your documentation using the included reporting tools
Document Report displays the workflow status, approvals, states and due dates for your pages and blog posts across a space
Document Activity Report shows the current workflow activity on a page or blog post
Create a custom workflow using workflow builder
Each of the included workflows can be customized using the workflow builder visual editing tool or build a custom workflow for your own needs.
Workflow builder visual editor allows you to
You can customize individual approvals in the workflow to
allow manual assignment of reviewers from the workflow popup
set specific reviewers for an approval
You can also use workflow builder to create more responsive and flexible workflows by
adding one or more JSON triggers to respond to workflow events, for example, to generate custom notifications
using workflow parameters to manage the values used in your workflow, for example, users who are added as reviewers, due date values for the expiry of content
Workflow builder also allows you to toggle between the visual editor and the code editor using the editor option icons.
Changes saved in one editor are automatically updated in the other editor.