Approvals
- Robert Alexander Marshall
Overview
Approvals (content reviews) are a crucial part of most workflows.
Approvals are characterized by a decision to Approve or Reject the content, and based on that decision, the workflow will generally transition to another state.
Defining reviews
One or more reviews can be added to a state using the approval macro:
{workflow:name=Reviews}
{state:Draft|submit=Review}
{state}
{state:Review|approved=Approved|rejected=Draft}
{approval:Technical Review|assignable=true}
{state}
{state:Rejected}
{state}
{state:Approved}
{state}
{workflow}The approved and rejected parameters on the state macro determine which states to transition to if the review is Approved or Rejected.
One or more approvals can be added to each state using the visual editing tool workflow builder.
Approvals can be added or edited for a state in the approval editor in workflow builder.
The approvals editor includes options to edit approval reviewer assignment.
The approval transitions, Approved and Rejected can each be added for the state using the transitions editor in workflow builder.
Permissions
By default, a user must have edit or admin permissions in order to take part in a content review.
However, if the global app configuration (or the space app configuration) is set to allow anyone to view Workflow Activity and Drafts then users with view permission, so long as they are logged in to Confluence, will be able to take part in reviews (v4.6 or later).
Reviewers
The users who make the decision to Approve or Reject are called reviewers.
The settings of the approval macro determine
if anyone can review
who can review
who must undertake the review (and is pre-assigned by the workflow on transition into the content review state)
if users are allowed to assign reviewers
and if the review is assignable you can limit who can be assigned
All assigned reviewers must reach the same decision (all be in agreement) before the review will be considered approved or rejected.
You can use events to change this behavior, for example, to facilitate fast-tracked rejections.
Reviewers for each approval can be edited in the approval editor in workflow builder.
Anyone can review
You can set the approval so that Anyone (with edit and view permission) can undertake the review.
A single reviewer decision will action the approved or rejected transition.
Reviewer assignment using workflow builder - Anyone can approve (no restrictions)
Example workflow markup
{state:Draft|approved=Approved|rejected=Rejected}
{approval:Review}
{state}Assignable review
The approval can be set to allow one or more users to be assigned to the review.
Once a user is assigned, only that user can undertake the review. But additional users can be assigned if the transition has not taken place.
If more than one user has been assigned, all users must agree for a transition to occur.
Users who have not yet undertaken a decision can be unassigned.
Example workflow markup
{state:Draft|approved=Approved|rejected=Rejected}
{approval:Review|assignable=true}
{state}Minimum reviewers
You can set a minimum number of reviewers to agree on the approved decision for the transition to occur.
A minimum can be required when the approval is set so
anyone can approve
the content review is assignable
reviewers are limited
Example workflow markup
Limiting users who can be assigned
You can also limit the users that can be assigned.
This is done by making the review assignable and adding the user(s) and/or user group(s) who can be assigned. The assignable dialog box in the workflow popup only displays/searches for these specified users/members of the user group(s).
Example workflow markup
Limiting users who can review
You can also simply limit users who can review. Only these users will be able to undertake the review.
All other users simply see the Approved and Rejected options disabled (greyed out) in the workflow popup. No users can be assigned manually using the workflow popup.
Example workflow markup
Requiring users to undertake a review
Reviewers can be mandated to undertake a review. On transition into the content review state, the user avatar will be appended to the workflow popup.
All reviewers must agree for a transition to occur.
Example workflow markup
Multi-group reviews
In cases where more than one team of reviewers is required, rather than adding the teams to a single approval, just add more {approval} macros to the state and use a different approval for each team.
You can also use conditions to set the order in which the approvals in a state are undertaken.
Credentials
Reviewers can optionally be required to verify their credentials before making a review.
Each approval can be edited to require credentials for the reviewers. Global administrators can set the method of authentication.
See: Reviewer Authentication, Credentials prompt, E-Signatures, E-Signatures Configuration - Global
Notifications
By default, assignees and page watchers will receive notifications about the review progress, and all interactions will be tracked in the Activity Report - Content.
Approval reviewer roles
Use the optional reviewer role feature to help inform the roles your approvers are performing. This is a more flexible method of capturing roles compared to named reviews and allows you to assign ad-hoc roles when necessary.
To enable the addition of a reviewer role for a workflow in workflow builder
open the advanced section of the Edit approvals panel
check Enable roles
Reviewer roles, once added, are available in the dropdown option list in the Assign reviewer dialog box on the page or blog post.
Macros
Events
All aspects of the review process generate Events, which can be used to Trigger Actions.
Reviewer assignment events:
pageapprovalassignednewsapprovalassignedapprovalunassigned
Approval events:
pageapprovednewsapprovedpagerejectednewsrejected
App configuration
Setting | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Workflow Activity and Drafts Visibility | Who can see the workflow and draft content? | |
Page Update Reset Approval | During an active review, if the content is updated should existing approvals be reset? | |
Approval Comment | Should comments be mandatory when participating in a content review? | |
Approval – Assignee | Should assigned reviewers receive email notifications about the content review? | |
| Set how many characters must be typed when searching for reviewers |