Applying workflows
Overview
A Comala Document Management workflow codifies a business or compliance process into...
states and transitions between states - your process milestones and the routes from one milestone to the next
content reviews - your approval processes for each milestone
One or more reviewers may be required for each approval, depending on the applied workflow. Users are either automatically assigned as reviewers by the workflow or manually by your editors
Some documentation processes may be managed automatically by the workflow, for example, undertaking a transition to a different workflow state if the page is updated.
Each workflow is stored as a workflow template that can be added and applied to your pages and blog posts.
In each space, a workflow can be added
The space administrator selects and applies a workflow to all pages and blog posts in a space in the space settings Document Management dashboard.
If a workflow is not applied to the whole space by the space administrator, then a page editor can apply a workflow to each page (or blog post), on a page-by-page basis.
Only one workflow can be applied to a page at any one time. Applying a workflow across the space overrides a workflow applied to an individual page.
Editors manage the document process using the workflow popup accessed through the workflow state byline added to the page.
For each page with an applied workflow, page editors (using the popup ellipsis menu or the page tools menu) can view the page document activity report displaying the workflow lifecycle activity on the current page.
For each space, the Document Report option in the Confluence sidebar displays the workflow information for all the pages and blog posts in the space with an applied workflow.
There are several workflows bundled with Comala Document Management for Cloud or you create one or more custom workflows.
A copy of a bundled workflow can be edited (and saved with a new name) in the space settings Document Management dashboard using the workflow builder visual editing tool to create a custom workflow.
Bundled Workflows
The following workflows are available in each space in your Confluence site on the installation of Comala Document Management.
Basic Approval Workflow
The Basic Approval Workflow is a 3 state workflow.
Content can in one of three states:
Review
Approved
Rejected
Users can be assigned to review and approve the content in the Review state. The workflow will transition the content to the Approved or Rejected state based on the reviewer's decision.
Each time the Approved content is edited, the content state is reset to the Review state.
An e-signature process (user email and one-time password authorization) can be configured for each approval.
Content Expiry Approval Workflow
The Content Expiry Approval Workflow is a 4 state workflow with an expiry duration added on transition to the workflow final state, Approved.
Content can be in one of four states:
Review
Rejected
Approved
Expired
Users can be assigned to review and approve the content. A review of content can be undertaken in the Review, Rejected or Expired states.
Updating content in the Expired or Approved state will cause the workflow to transition the content to the Review state.
Approved content will expire after a set period of time so that it can be reviewed.
An e-signature process (user email and one-time password authorization) can be configured for approval.
Quality Management Systems (QMS) Workflow
The Quality Management Systems (QMS) Workflow is a 4 state workflow that allows users to be assigned to undertake reviews of the content in different states based on the editable values of workflow parameters.
Content can be in one of four states.
Draft
In Approval
Published
Obsolete
This workflow has greater flexibility to manage the review and approval of content:
users or groups of users that are allowed to approve can be restricted.
an e-signature process (user email and one-time password authorization) is set for each approval but can be disabled if required.
Reviewer authentication
An optional feature of all the workflows is to require users to use their email and a one-time password (OTP) to confirm their identity when registering an approval. Each individual approval can be set to require user authentication using this e-signature.
In the Quality Management Systems (QMS) workflow the approvals by default in the Draft and the In Approval states require an e-signature for reviewers