Applying an approval workflow to an Individual Page

Owned by Robert Alexander Marshall
Last updated: Jul 19, 2024
5 min read
1 Add and Apply the Approval | 2 Approval Workflow States | 3 Approve the content | 4 Assign a reviewer | 4.1 Multiple reviewers | 5 Removing a page approval

Overview

A user with edit permissions in a space can add and apply the Comala Document Approval app approval workflow on a page-by-page basis to a page or blog post.

Add and Apply the Approval

On a page, choose Page Tools and Add Page Approval.

A screen notification confirms that the Comala Document Approval app workflow is successfully applied to the content and that you may need to refresh your browser.

The approval content byline item is added as a breadcrumb to the page subtitle.

The content is in the default initial workflow state: the Review state. 

The content in the Review state is now considered as draft content and only users with edit or admin permission for the content will be able to view the page or blog post.

Approval Workflow States

Adding Comala Document Approval applies a basic approval workflow to the content.

The workflow consists of three states:



There are different transitions that can occur between each of the three states depending on the activity

The Review state has a content review (approval) that requires one or more users to approve or reject the content.

  • the applied workflow transitions to the appropriate destination state when the reviewer(s) agree on the approval decision. 

There is also an approval when the content is in the Rejected state.

Each content review has a different destination for the approve decision. The content review in the Rejected state only has the Approve button as a choice.

An automatic transition to a new state occurs when the page is edited and updated in the following states

  • Approved

  • Rejected


Approve the content

By default, any user with Edit permissions can undertake the content review (the approval) to Approve or Reject the page or blog post. This is done through the approval pop-up:

The content review (approval) is characterised by two buttons "Approve" and "Reject".

Approving or rejecting the content will cause the page or blog post to transition (move) to another state in the workflow. The reviewer has the option choose Add comment. The comment will be included with any notification of the approval sent to a user. Approvals and the comments are also recorded in the workflow history report.

In the Review state above:

  • an Approve decision will publish the content to the Approved state

  • a Reject decision will move the content to another draft state, the Rejected state

Content in the Rejected state is also subject to a content review:

In the Rejected state:

  • an Approve decision will publish the content to the Approved state

  • there is no option to reject the content within this content review. But if the page or blog post is edited and saved in this state, the workflow will automatically transition to the Review state


Approved content

The Approved state is the version of the page or blog post that is considered the final version of your content.


Users will be able to view the workflow activity history for the content by choosing the Activity Report button in the workflow popup.

Any changes to the content will transition the content back to the Review state.

Page editors and admin users will be able to view the draft content in the Review state. An additional breadcrumb is added to the page for editors to view the current approved content.


Assign a reviewer

One or more users can be assigned to undertake a content review.

  • choose +Add Reviewer

  • type in the search option to find a user to assign as a reviewer

  • check the box for the chosen user

  • choose Assign to add the user as a reviewer for the approval

Once a reviewer is selected you can choose Add note before you assign the user to send a note with the notification of the content review assignment.

The avatar fo the assigned reviewer is displayed in the workflow popup.

Once one or more reviewers are assigned to the content review

  • only the assigned reviewer(s) can undertake the content review

  • both the approve and reject buttons are disabled

Any reviewer who has not yet undertaken an approval decision can be unassigned as a reviewer. Other users can also be assigned as a reviewer.

Additional reviewers can be assigned but if more than one reviewer is assigned, all the reviewers must agree on the approval decision for the workflow to transition.

Multiple reviewers

Each content review can have more than one assignee. To add reviewers

  • choose +Add Reviewers

  • search for a user

  • check the box next to the user to be assigned

  • repeat a search and check the box for another user

  • choose Assign

The avatar for each assignee will be added to the approval popup.

The approve and reject buttons are disabled for all other users including those with admin permissions.

Additional reviewers can be assigned (or existing reviewers unassigned) until all the reviewers agree and the approval transition occurs.

  • each of the assignees can either approve or reject the content

  • each assignee's decision is shown in the approval popup

An assignee can change their decision if the other assignee for the approval has not yet undertaken the review, or has made a different decision:

All assignees must agree to approve (or reject) the content for any transition. All individual review decisions are recorded in the Approval Document Activity Report report.

Removing a page approval

Choose Remove Page Approval from the page tools menu.