Assignment Examples

Overview

These examples show several configurations of the approval macro parameters that control who can take part in, or assign users to a content review.

View-only users

Users who only have Confluence view permission can take part in a content review so long as they can see the workflow popup.

Requires the Workflow Activity and Drafts Visibility admin option to be set to the default setting of Anybody.

No assignment

By default, a content review added to a workflow does not allow reviewer assignment.

The workflow popup in the content review state displays only the Approve and Reject option buttons.

Any single user with Edit content permission can Approve or Reject the review. A single reviewer approval decision (approved or rejected) causes the transition of the workflow.

{workflow:name=No assignment} {state:Editing|submit=Review} {state} {state:Review|approved=Published|rejected=Editing} {approval:Review} {state} {state:Published} {state} {workflow}

https://appfire.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CDML/pages/650120187/Edit+approval+reviewers+using+workflow+builder#Anyone-can-approve

Assign anyone

To allow anyone to be assigned, add the assignable=true parameter.

The workflow popup displays the + Add reviewer button.

In this scenario:

  • If there are no assignees, any single user can complete the review

  • Users in the confluence-users group (all registered Confluence users) can be assigned to the review.

  • If anyone is assigned, only the assignee(s) can complete the review

  • If multiple people are assigned, they must all agree, either Approve or Reject, to complete the review

{workflow:name=No assignment} {state:Editing|submit=Review} {state} {state:Review|approved=Published|rejected=Editing} {approval:Review|assignable=true} {state} {state:Published} {state} {workflow}

https://appfire.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CDML/pages/650120187/Edit+approval+reviewers+using+workflow+builder#Users-can-be-assigned-through-UI

Limiting reviewers

Making an approval assignable is one way to limit reviewers. But anyone can still approve the review if a user has not yet been assigned.

There are several ways you can limit the users who undertake the approval and/or assign users as reviewers depending on your needs for the approval process in the workflow state.

https://appfire.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CDML/pages/650120187/Edit+approval+reviewers+using+workflow+builder#Limit-who-can-approve-and%2For-assign-reviewers

Excluding reviewers

You can use the exclude parameter to define one or more users who can not take part in the review.

The Approve and Reject buttons appear disabled for the excluded users.

However, if the review is assignable, these excluded users are still be able to assign other users to the review.

The excluded parameter takes precedence over the groupselectedapproverselectedapprovers and user parameters (see below).

A common exclusion use is for the person who created the content. This can be achieved with the @creator@ user reference.

{workflow:name=No assignment} {state:Editing|submit=Review} {state} {state:Review|approved=Published|rejected=Editing} {approval:Review|assignable=true|exclude=@creator@} {state} {state:Published} {state} {workflow}

Minimum reviewers

ou can specify how many people must be assigned to undertake the approval of the content using the minimum parameter.

The workflow popup will indicate the number of reviewers required by displaying a number user outline avatars corresponding to the minimum number of reviewers required.

More reviewers can be added if desired, but the set minimum number of reviewers completing and agreeing on the review decision causes the approval transition.

Users are assigned as reviewers by choosing the + icon in the popup.

All assigned reviewers would have to agree on either Approve or Reject in order to complete the review.

For the Approve decision, the number of review decisions must also at least meet the minimum requirement if present.

The approval has two added parameters:

  • assignable=true allows the assignment of reviewers

  • minimum=2 sets the required number of approval decisions for the transition to occur

If more than one reviewer is assigned you can fastrack a reject transition by adding a trigger to the workflow. This negates the need for all assigned reviewers to agree on a Reject decision for the rejected transition to take place.

Limiting assignment

You may want to limit which users or groups are allowed to assign a reviewer for the approval i.e., who can be an assigner. You can choose to use the allowedassignusers and/or the allowedassigngroups parameter.

In the example above, only a user who is a member of the Confluence group assigners or user elle can assign reviewers in the Review approval. The assignable=true parameter must also be included to allow the assignment of reviewers for the approval.

Be aware that until the review has been assigned it can be undertaken by anyone with view and edit permissions.

So if you only want the review to be undertaken once a reviewer has been assigned you can use the allowedassignusers and/or allowedassigngroups parameters together with the selectedapprover or selectedapprovers parameters.


The allowed assigners are only the user elle and members of the Confluence user group assigners.

These users see the option to +Add reviewer in the workflow popup.

For all other users, the workflow popup displays the content review with

  • the approval option buttons disabled

  • and no option to assign reviewers

Allowed assigners can choose  +Add reviewer to open the reviewer assignee dialogue box. The choice of reviewers is limited to the users specified by the selectedapprovers parameter.

These parameters can also be combined with other parameters, for example, user or group if you want to automatically assign a user beforehand and/or the minimum if you require more than one reviewer to undertake and agree the review.

The ! operator is used to allow any user to assign reviewers except specific listed ones. In the example below any user except horst and ahmed will be allowed to assign:

Limiting selection

If you want to limit which users or groups can be assigned to a review, use the user and/or group parameters.

In the example above, anyone from the listed group and individual users can take part in the review, and optionally be assigned beforehand. A minimum of two reviewers is required to complete the review.

If the cumulative number of users specified by these parameters is 15 or fewer then, they will automatically be listed, without the need to search, when assigning reviewers.

Automatic assignment

ou can set all users who must approve the content. This is usually done by the workflow automatically assigning users as reviewers to to an approval on transition into the workflow state containing the content review.

One or more Confluence users, and/or one or more Confluence user groups can be added as the users who are assigned.

When editing the markup to configure the approval, If you want to automatically assign one or more users and/or groups, use the group and/or user parameter(s) but prefix the value with & (ampersand).

In the example above, all users from the specified Confluence user groups and all the individual Confluence users listed are automatically assigned to the review. 

At least one assignee

The selectedapprovers parameter allows you to specify one or more users and/or groups, and automatically sets minimum=1.

The two examples below have the exact same effect.

In the example:

An editor choosing +Add reviewer in the workflow popup would be able to select one or more of the listed users as a reviewer.

The user must be assigned before they can Approve or Reject.

  • additional reviewers can be assigned before the approval transition

  • existing assigned reviewers can be unassigned if they have not yet undertaken a decision

Exactly one assignee

If you want to mandate that one person is assigned, and no more, use the selectedapprover parameter.

In the example above, only one person from the listed  users (and if present listed groups) can take part in the review.

Users must be assigned before they can Approve or Reject.

  • only one reviewer can be assigned

  • once a reviewer is assigned the +Add reviewer option is removed from the workflow popup

  • an assigned reviewer can be unassigned before they have undertaken the approval decision