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.
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.
A workflow added to a page cannot be edited on the page. A workflow can only be customized by editing a workflow in the space settings Document Management dashboard.
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.
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 in a space using the space settings Document Management dashboard.
The installed workflows are
Each workflow has a different document management workflow process to provide greater control of your document development and management. These workflows include
different workflow states and transitions to create different milestones and process routes
expiry due dates for approved content
automatic assignment of users by the workflow 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.
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 (page mode workflow)
add and apply a workflow across all the documents 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.
You can apply different workflows to separate individual pages in a space only if there is no active space mode workflow in the space. If a space workflow is active, this will, by default, be applied to all the pages and blog posts in the space including pages and blog posts that have previously had page mode workflow applied.
Once Comala Document Management app is added to your instance 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 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. Page editors can apply a workflow to a single page if a workflow is not applied to all the space content by a space administrator.
You can add a workflow to pages and blog posts using the
space settings Document Management dashboard (if you are a space administrator)
A space administrator can track the workflow activity on pages and blog posts in 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. Once enabled it will be added and applied to all existing pages and blog posts in the space and be automatically added to any new pages and blog posts created in the space.
Comala Document Management only allows one space workflow to be active. This maintains the requirement that only one workflow can be active on any individual page or blog post at any one time.
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.
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The e-signature authentication is added to the workflow popup. E-signature requires the set up and use of a third-party app to create an approval authentication token.
Create a custom workflow using workflow builder
Each of the included workflows can be customized using the workflow builder visual editing tool. You can also use workflow builder to create your own custom workflows.
Workflow builder 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.
A new custom workflow can be created or an existing workflow customized using workflow builder or the JSON editor in the space settings Document Management dashboard.