Adding and Applying Comala Document Approval to a Space

Overview

Applying a Comala Document Approval to a space applies the workflow to all the pages and blog posts. When the space approval workflow is active, the approval workflow is automatically applied when new pages and blog posts are created in the space.

The space application of the approval workflow overrides all approvals added and applied to individual pages and blog posts on a page-by-page basis.

Adding approvals to all pages and blog posts in a space

A Comala Document Approval workflow is added and applied to all pages and blog posts in the space by making the approval workflow active in the document approval dashboard in a space.

The addition and application of the space approval workflow is by the space administrator(s).

Open the space document approvals dashboard

Choose Space Settings in the sidebar menu.

In the Confluence sidebar menu

  • choose Space Settings

  • choose App links

cdac_spacesettings_applinks.png
  • select Comala Document Approval

This displays the space settings document approval dashboard.

cdac_spacesettings_documentapprovaldashboard_workflow_inactive.png

The Basic Approval Workflow is listed in the dashboard. This is a simple three-state approval workflow for the Comala Document Approval app.

The Basic Approval Workflow is disabled in the space by default. When disabled a user with edit permission for a page or blog post in the space can add and apply an approval workflow to an individual page or blog post.

To display information details of the basic approval workflow

  • choose the View detail icon

A popup displays a visual flowchart and description of the workflow.

Apply the workflow

Apply the Basic Approval Workflow to all the pages and blog posts in the space by

  • select the toggle slider next to the Basic Approval Workflow name

  • click on the slider to enable the approval

 

The workflow is active and enabled as the space approvals workflow.

An on-screen notification confirms that the space configuration has been successfully saved.

The active approval workflow is added and applied to

  • all the pages and blog posts in the space

  • added to any new pages or blog posts created in the space

Comala Document Approval app uses the same approvals workflow (with identical workflow states and transitions) in this space mode of application, and when adding the approval workflow to a page or blog post on a page-by-page basis (page mode of application). 

Configuration and settings

Several options are available to configure the space approval workflow.

In the document approval dashboard

  • choose the ellipsis menu

When the approval workflow is active, two options are enabled

  • Initialize States - set the approval state for all the space content by initializing the workflow state

  • Clear Document Activity - clears the approval document activity for all the pages and blog posts

The actions for each of these options cannot be undone.

Initialize States

Use the document approval dashboard ellipsis dropdown menu to set the approval state for pages and blog posts in the space.

Initializing states causes a page with an applied workflow but no workflow actions or an outdated (obsolete) workflow state to be set to a selected state. The space administrator also has the option to reset the workflow states for all the pages and blog posts.

  • choose Initialize States

In the dialog box, a state must be selected for the initialization destination state.

  • choose the state from the dropdown menu

  • (if required) check the Override preexisting states checkbox to set all the workflow states to the selected state

  • choose Initialize

 

 

An on-screen notification confirms the completion of the state initialization.

Clear Document activity

Choose Clear Document Activity to reset all the workflow events and action history for approvals for this space. This includes all pages and blogposts, approvers, and assigned reviewers.

  • choose the document approval dashboard ellipsis menu

  • choose Clear Document Activity

In the dialog box

  • choose OK, clear Document Activity

 

 

The clears the Document Activity of all pages and blog posts including document activity from approvals applied on a page-by-page basis.

Disabling the space approval workflow

To disable the space mode application of the approval workflow across the content in a space, in the space settings document approval dashboard

  • click the blue toggle slider next to the Basic Approval Workflow name

The toggle slider moves to grey.

Any previous approval workflow added and applied to individual pages or blog posts on a page-by-page basis is re-enabled. The page approval workflow state is the last state before the space approval workflow was disabled.

Document report

When the space approval workflow is inactive in a space and there are no approvals added on a page-by-page basis, the document report displays a message stating the Comala Document Approval is disabled for the space.