Workflow is an approval process where one or more people will check the changes that have been made to an asset before it is made Live. When Workflow is applied to an asset you will not be able to edit the asset if its Status is Live. To edit an asset, you need to change the Status to Safe Edit. Once you have finished editing an asset, you can start the approval process by selecting Apply for Approval in the Status field on the Details screen of the asset. You also need to Apply for Approval when the Status of the asset is Under Construction and you want to make it Live.

The process of editing and approving content on an asset when workflow is applied is shown in the figure below.

The Workflow editing and approval process

Workflow Screen

The Workflow screen of an asset allows you to view the currently running Workflow, approve or reject the changes and apply a Workflow Schema. For more information on how to create and apply a Workflow Schema, refer to the Workflow Schemas manual.

Running Workflows

By default, no fields will appear in this section. Once Workflow has been applied, if it is currently not running for an asset, the Workflow screen will look similar to the one shown in the figure below.

The Running Workflow section when workflow is not running

The Running Workflows section shows the last set of Workflow messages that were logged for the asset the last time workflow was run. For example, in the figure above, it shows that User started the Workflow.

To start the approval process, on the Details screen select Apply for Approval in the Status section and click Commit. The Workflow screen will be updated to show that Workflow is currently running, as shown in the figure below.

The Running Workflows section when workflow is running

This Running Workflows section now allows you to approve or reject the Workflow. Please note that these fields will only appear if you are part of the approval process or you are an Administrator of the asset.

• Warning: this warning will only appear if there are required metadata fields that are still empty. The Workflow approval process can still be completed but these fields need to be filled out before the asset can be made Live.
• Change Status? : select either Approve or Reject Changes from the list provided. You can check the Cascade Status Change box to cascade the changes to any child assets. If you reject the Workflow approval, the asset will revert back to its previous Status. For example, if the Status of the asset was Safe Edit and it was rejected during Workflow, it will be changed back to Safe Edit. The changes made to the content of the asset will not be lost.
• Log Message: enter any comments you have for the approval or the reasons why you are rejecting the Workflow. This message will appear in the Workflow Logs.
• Workflow Logs: this section shows the latest set of Workflow messages that were logged for the asset. For example, in the figure above, it shows that the Root User started the Workflow and then the Root User rejected it.

Running Workflow

This section only appears when Workflow is running and shows the progress of the approval process including how long it has been running and the number of steps that haven been completed. In the example below, you can see that the Workflow has been running for a total of 13 minutes and 39 seconds. The first step of the Workflow has been approved as [Completed] appear next to the first step. The second step of the Workflow is yet to be approved as [Not Completed] appears next to the second step.

The Running Workflow section