Transitions

Overview

The routes from one state to another destination state in your workflow are transitions.

A transition is added to a workflow state. The transition is configured for the individual state and includes the type of transition and the destination state.

The types of transition available are

select
approve and reject (available when an approval is added to the state)
updated
expired (will only occur when added to a state, if that state has been configured with a due date)

One or more possible transitions can be added to a state but only one of each type of transition can be added to the state.

Transitions

Type of transition

The types of transition available for a workflow state are

select transition

a user can select a destination state using the workflow popup

select options available for the choice of destination state are set the workflow for the current state
the select transition cannot be present in a state when an approval is present in the state

approved transition

occurs when a user (or all assigned users) approve the content
can only be added to a state if the state has a content review (approval)

rejected transition

occurs when a user (or all assigned users) reject the content
can only be added to a state if the state has a content review (approval)

updated transition

The updated transition must be added to the state. Can be added with other transition options for example, with a content review; with a select transition

occurs when a user edits and saves a change to the content
an updated transition removes any reviewers previously assigned using the workflow popup if the state also contains a content review

Adding or removing a label or attachment does not action the updated transition.

expired transition

The expired transition must be added to the state. The state must be configured with a due date for the state.

occurs when a due date added to the state is reached
if no due date is added (or has been removed before the due date) no expiry occurs
the Content Expiry workflow has an expired transition added to the Approved state

A state can have one or more or all of these possible transitions. The approved and rejected transitions are only available when the state contains an approval (content review).

Transitions can also occur due to a trigger action listening for a workflow event, such as a change of state, a page approval. These can be added to the workflow as a JSON trigger.

Example - Basic Approval workflow transitions

In the Basic Approval Workflow, in the Review state, the content can undergo one of three transitions

The approve and reject transitions are part of the content review named Review this page in the Review state.

These occur when a user chooses to either approve or reject the Review state content using the content review buttons in the workflow popup.

The workflow popup progress tracker displays the workflow states.

Mouse-over the approve or reject button to display ethe destination state for the content review decisions below the progress tracker bar.

If the content is edited and saved in the Basic Approval workflow Review state, the page remains in the Review state but the workflow logs this as a transition.

An updated transition removes a reviewer from the content review if they had been manually assigned using the workflow popup. The approval and approval decisions are reset.

In the published (final) Approved state, if the content is edited and saved, the page will move to the draft state Review

This transition is not implemented through the workflow popup. The workflow automatically transitions when the content is updated.

Pages or blogs in the Rejected state can be approved, and the page will transition to the Approved state. If the content is edited, the Simple Approval Workflow will transition the page or blog to the Review state:

The content review whilst in the Rejected state can also be rejected by a reviewer.

A rejection decision whilst in the Rejected state will not cause a transition in this example workflow. It will simply remain in the Rejected state, but the event of rejecting the content will be recorded in the workflow history.