Introducing Comala Document Approval 2 with Document Activity

Comala Document Approval 2 is a Data Center Only release and in this release, Page Activity will be replaced with our all-new Document Activity capability.

Document Activity provides:

• better performance and stability

• a new Document Activity Report with improved filtering and a more intuitive layout

To ensure a smooth upgrade, after installing Comala Document Approval 2 you will need to run a pre-upgrade check using the Document Activity Upgrade console to

• validate your existing Page Activity

• estimate the time needed to upgrade your Page Activity

You can then use the Document Activity Upgrade console to upgrade your data to use the Document Activity capability on a space-by-space basis. The data upgrade process will require your data center site to be put into Read Only Mode.

Space level properties population for the workflow approval content properties of pages and blog posts for the document control reports and report macros in a space can now be undertaken in the new Report Data Population screen in the space tools Document Approval dashboard.

This is a more accessible option to run the space population job rather than through the URL for the space.

Comala Document Approval 2 is coming!

As part of our preparations for Comala Document Approval 2, we have released a new Document Activity Upgrade console to validate your existing page activity and get an estimate of the time required to upgrade your spaces.

Translations

Brazilian Portuguese is now supported!

New Document Stats Report

• displays a count of the content in each workflow state
• this new report has improved performance compared to the previous report and resolves some issues that users have previously experienced
  
  

New Document Actions Report

• Replaces the 'Document Tasks' page in your User Profile and the Dashboard component
  
  
  
• This new report has improved performance compared to the previous report and resolves some issues that users have previously experienced
  
  
• A global configuration option is provided to disable the Dashboard component if required. For example when you use a custom theme
  

New Document States Report Macro

• Introducing the first of our new report macros - Document States Report Macro. This macro enables you to configure and display a report about the pages with workflows in your space, or your entire Confluence Instance.
  
• The report provides the same capabilities that are in the existing Approval Report macro, plus
  
  • New report look and feel
  • Improved macro configuration, with easier to use filtering
    
    
    
  • Ability to choose which report columns to display, and the order to display them in
    
    
    
  • Improved performance, resolving issues with the existing workflow approval report macro

Read Confirmation

Comala Document Approval 1.7.0 brings updates to the Read Confirmation feature:

Standalone Read Confirmations

Previously, Read Confirmations could only be used as a part of a page approval workflow. Now Read Confirmations can be added to any page without the need for reviews and approvals.

Setting Due Date

A due date can now be added and updated in the Read Confirmation dialog by clicking on the clock icon.

Read Confirmation request option

At final review, the reviewer can decide if read confirmations should be assigned.

Data Center compatibility

• Comala Document Approval 1.6.0 has been updated to support Confluence Data Center.
• As part of this update Data Center read only mode is now also supported.

Updates and Bug fixes

• Fixes several UI issues regarding internationalization and messaging.
• If a user without workflow permission is trying to access a non approved page via the approved page url, an error message will be displayed.
• For this release we have made a slight change to the minimum supported Confluence version from 6.0.1 to 6.0.7.

This is the first release of Comala Document Approval 1.5.0, formerly Comala Approvals.

The new name unites Comala Document Approval with our other apps in the Comala Document Management family. Renaming the apps makes it easier for our customers to understand how they are related, and better explains their scope and use.  

Read Confirmation

• This release introduces the Read Confirmation feature to Comala Document Approval
• Request that your users confirm they have read your approved content

Approval Roles

This release introduces a new feature that allows approvers to use the optional approval role field to record the roles that your approvers are performing. This is a more flexible method of capturing roles compared to named reviews, and allows you to easily assign ad hoc roles when necessary.

These roles can be created and shared to group other reviewers.

Suggested Contributors

Comala Approvals will suggest assignees that were recent contributors to the page.

New Due Date feature

A Due Date can now be assigned to a page in Approved state. When the Due Date is reached the page will go back to Review state.

The Due Date can be entered by clicking on the clock image or selecting the "Set due date" entry in the "..." menu.

Improved Approvals Dialog Layout

The visual design of the Approvals Dialog Pop-up has been improved. It's now easier to use, and is up to date with the latest Confluence styling.

New Space Approval Report

The space level Approvals report received a makeover in this release. We have completely rebuilt the front end to allow configurable columns.

(At this time only the space workflow report has been changed. Other macro and user profile reports keep their existing functionality for now.)

This new report performs quicker than our old report because it now uses the native Confluence search API. The trade-off of this speed improvement is that the property data used in the report needs to be setup the first time. This should happen automatically, but please see the Upgrade Instructions section for more information.

It is recommended to rebuild the indexes to get accurate results in the new space workflow report.

Updated minimum Confluence compatibility

Starting with Approvals version 1.2.0, the new minimum version of Confluence that the app is compatible with is Confluence 6.0.1.

New Onboarding for Approvals

This release adds introduction information about Comala Approvals for new users to Confluence.

For this release there is a introduction screen as well as a in page message for page authors to let them know about the new functionality.

The Onboarding feature can be disabled via an admin setting in Confluence General Configuration.

Welcome to Comala Approvals Server

Use Comala Approvals to add simple reviews and approvals to your Confluence pages or spaces.

• Assign one or more reviewers to sign off on content
• Visual indicators on approved and draft pages
• Separated views for approved and draft versions of your pages
• Define approvals and reviewers on a per page or space basis
• Get approval notifications as in page notifications and emails
• Review the approval status of your pages in space reports
• See your pending approvals in the Confluence dashboard