Content Expiry Workflow
- Robert Alexander Marshall
Overview
The Content Expiry Workflow is designed to help keep your content fresh, the approved pages will expire after a set period of time, so that it can be reviewed again.
The workflow consists of four states
Review - while the page is awaiting review
Rejected - when the page is rejected
Approved - when the page has been approved, this state will automatically transition to Expired once the deadline is reached
Expired - when the page previously determined date is exceeded. You can always approve this version if the content is still valid
Each time the page is edited in either the Approved, Rejected or Expired state the workflow will transition back to the Review state (an updated transition).
E-signatures can be required for reviewers on each individual approval in the Review, Expired and Rejected states. The credentials requirement can be set for each approval using workflow builder visual editor.
A Comala Document Management workflow can be applied to pages and blog posts.
Approved state expiry due date
The Approved state is configured with a due date period. The value for the due date period is set as the value of a workflow parameter named expiration.
The due date period is added on the applied workflow transition to Approved state and is displayed in the workflow popup on the page.
The value for the expiration parameter is referenced by the applied Content Expiry Workflow using the value reference format @expiration@.
The expiration workflow parameter value used for the Approved state due date can be amended by a space admin in the space tools Document Management dashboard.
The @ Parameters button option for the Content Expiry Workflow is displayed when the workflow is made active (enabled) in the dashboard. The button displays the number of workflow parameters defined in the workflow.
Choose the @ Parameters button option to open the Parameters dialog box.
The default value for the expiration parameter value is a Period of time five months set from the date of the transition.
The Parameters dialog box is used to set the value for the expiration workflow parameter. The expiry period for the Approved state is set to the current value for the expiration parameter every time a transition to the Approved state occurs.
The parameter can also be set to use different formats for the due date value including setting the value as a
Period of years/months/hours/minutes
Fixed date
ISO_8601 value for a period of time, for example P1Y6M
Value Reference used to for parameter value (this can be another workflow parameter)
Viewing the expiry due date on the page
On the page, the workflow popup in the Approved state displays the expiry due date period lozenge.
Once this due date period is exceeded, the page is transitioned to the Expired state.
If a user edits the content in the Expired state and saves the changes, the workflow will automatically transition the Updated content to the Review state.
The current expired content can also be reviewed in the Expired state:
if the content is "stale", a Reject decision transitions the content to the Rejected state for updating
if the content is considered to be still current and appropriate, an Approve decision returns the content to the Approved state
The due date for the Approved state expiry is reset to the value stored for the workflow parameter in the space tools dashboard.
User setting of due date
Users can amend the expiry date when the content is in the Approved state.
Choose the expiry clock icon in the workflow popup.
Choose the current expiry date to open the calendar.
Choose a date and select Save to amend the Approved state expiry date.
Email notifications
Once a page is expired, the Content Expiry Workflow automatically sends email notifications to page-watchers. This custom notification is created by a workflow trigger included in the workflow.
Existing and additional workflow triggers can be added/edited to a custom workflow using the workflow visual editor or the code editor.
If you need to amend the workflow, the bundled workflow must be duplicated in the space document management dashboard.
This copy can be edited and applied to the pages and blog posts.
The trigger code in the workflow copy can be viewed and edited in the workflow builder visual editor in the Edit Workflow panel.
Existing and additional workflow triggers can be added/edited to a custom workflow using the workflow visual editor or the code editor.
You cannot edit the bundled Content Expiry Workflow. If you need to amend the workflow, the bundled workflow must be duplicated in the space document management dashboard.
This copy can be edited and applied to the pages and blog posts.
The trigger code in the workflow copy can be viewed and edited in the workflow builder visual editor in the Edit Workflow panel.
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