Approval Chains
An approval chain is a series of users or user groups who must approve content before it can be published on your Web site. When the last person in the chain approves content, it goes live.
Also, if a user deletes content, before it is removed from the CMS, it must pass through the approval chain.
When a new, edited, or deleted content is submitted to the approval chain, it is reviewed by users who may
- change it
- approve or decline it
- publish it (it’s published when the last user in the chain approves it)
Approval chains can be created for a folder or for content within a folder. If the approval chain for the folder and the content are different, the content approval chain overrides the folder approval chain.
The chart below illustrates the approval process.
You can approve, edit, or decline all content submitted to you from the approval folder.
The CMS can automatically send email notification, informing users that content workflow events have either taken place or are requested of them. As examples
- as soon as one member of the approval chain approves content, the next user or group is notified that the content is ready for approval
- a content contributor receives an email that his content has been published
The list of automatic emails and directions for customizing their content are described in Customizing Ektron email.
Conditions for Membership in Approval Chain
An approval chain can include any number of users or user groups. However, only users or user groups with read-only or higher permission to the folder or content item can be added to the approval chain. See Also: Managing Folder Permissions
NOTE: If you assign a user group to an approval chain, only one member of the group needs to approve the content, not all members.Also, if a user appears in an approval chain twice (both as a user and part of a user group), the approval chain skips the second approval because the user has already approved the content.
You can set up an approval chain for a content folder or a content item as well as a language. See Also: Multi-Language Approval Chains
Finally, the Approval Method determines if content must be approved by all users in the chain, or only users higher up the chain than the one making the edits.
Prerequisite: Only members of the Administrators group and users assigned to the Folder User Admin Role screen can modify the approval chain See Also: Defining Roles
Approval Chain Scenarios
An approval chain lets you control how and when your Web site is updated. For example, if your Webmaster needs to approve every new content item or update of an existing item, he would be last user in every approval chain and exert total control over the site.
Alternatively, you could set up a less centralized organization, where each department head controls his section. To accommodate this, set up an approval chain for each department, and assign the department head as the last person in the chain.
On the opposite extreme, you can delete the approval chain for a content item or folder. In this case, every item in that folder is published as soon as a user submits it for publication.
Inheritance and the Approval Chain
An approval chain’s inheritance is determined by the corresponding permission table. If a folder’s permission table inherits settings from its parent folder, that folder’s approval chain also inherits. To learn about enabling and disabling permission table inheritance, see Inheriting Permissions.
The Approval Chain screen only displays its inheritance status; it does not let you set it.
Creating an Approval Chain for a Content Folder
Prerequisite: Only members of the Administrators group and users assigned to the Folder User Admin Role screen can modify the approval chain See Also: Defining Roles
Before you can create or edit an approval chain, you must access the View screen.
Viewing a Folder’s Approval Chain
To view a folder’s approval chain:
- Click the Content tab.
- Select a folder from the left frame of the Workarea.
- Choose View > Language.
- Select the language of the approval chain you want to view.
- Choose View > Properties.
- Click Approvals (
). - The approval chain appears in the lower section of the screen.
This screen shows the following information about the approval chain.
- its language
- every user and user group in the approval chain
- the approval order
- the approval method. See Also: Using the Approval Method
- toolbar buttons for modifying the approval chain and method
Performing Actions from the Approvals Screen
From this screen, you can perform these actions:
- Add approvers
- Remove approvers
- Change the order of users in the approval chain
- Change the approval method
- Change the language of the approval chain—See Also: Multi-Language Approval Chains
Adding Approvers
To add a user or user group to the approval chain:
- Access the approval table, as described in Viewing a Folder’s Approval Chain.
- Select the language of the approval chain. The chain only applies to content in this language.
- Click Add. The Add Approvals screen appears.
Prerequisite: Only users and user groups with permissions to the folder appear. See Adding a User or User Group to the Permissions Table for more information.
Best Practice
Ektron suggests assigning user groups to the approval chain, as opposed to individual users. In this way, if someone is out of the office for a day, another group member can approve the content.
- Click the user or user group to add to the approval chain. A confirmation message appears.
- Click OK.
NOTE: If you assign a user group to an approval chain, any member of the group can approve the content, not all members.
Editing the Approval Order
After you assign approvers to a folder, you may want to adjust the approval order. Place the user or group with final review at the end of the approval chain (that is, the highest number).
For example, if you have a content contributor whose edits must be approved by a department head, and the Webmaster has final review of all content, the approval order would look like this.
- Content contributor—1
- Department Head—2
- Webmaster—3
To edit the approval order:
- Access the approval table as described in Viewing a Folder’s Approval Chain.
- Select the language.
- Click Reorder Items (). The Edit Approval Order screen appears.
- Click the user or group whose approval order you want to change.
- Click Up (
) or Down (
) to move the user or group to the desired order. - Click Update.
Deleting Approvers
NOTE: If a user in an approval chain is deleted from the permissions table, he or she is automatically deleted from the approval chain.
To delete a user or user group from an approval chain:
- Access the approval table as described in Viewing a Folder’s Approval Chain.
- Select the language.
- Click Delete (). The Remove Approval screen appears.
- Click the user or group that you want to remove from the approval chain. A confirmation message appears.
- Click OK.
Editing an Approval Chain For Content
You can change the approval chain for a specific content item. Use the View Content screen's Approvals button to do this.
Prerequisites:
- You must disable the inheritance of permissions for the content whose approval chain you want to edit. See Setting Permissions for Content
- You must assign users or groups you want to add to the approval chain to the content's permission table. Only users and user groups with permissions to the content are available for assignment. See Managing Folder Permissions
Updating the Approval Chain for Content
You can perform the same actions on the content’s approval chain that you can perform on a folder's. See Performing Actions from the Approvals Screen.
Approving or Declining Content
- From the Workarea, choose Reports > Contents > Approvals.
- Select a language and, optionally, a content type from the View menu to filter the content displayed.
- Click the content you want to approve or decline. To select all displayed content, check the box at the top of the screen. The content appears. You can view the content, summary, metadata, etc.
A toolbar at the top of the screen lists tasks you can perform on the content.
| Button | Name | Result of Clicking |
|---|---|---|
|
Publish |
Accept changes to the content and publish it to the site. NOTE: If there is another approver in the content’s approval chain, this is replaced by a SUBMIT button. If you click Publish but the content item has an incomplete task assigned to another user, the content cannot be published. Instead, the following error message appears.
The user to whom the task is assigned must complete it before you can publish the content. |
|
Decline |
Reject changes and keep current version of content live on Web site. You are prompted to enter a comment that provides a reason for the decline. The author who made the change is notified by email of the decline. The content inserted by the last editor remains in the file. If you do not want it to remain, choose the Edit option. |
|
|
Edit | Check out content and change it if desired. |
|
View Published/Staged | Toggle between published and submitted versions of content. This can help you compare versions. |
|
View Diff |
View differences between the version awaiting approval and the published content. See Also: Comparing Versions of Content |
|
Back | Return to previous screen. |
Approving or Declining Several Content Items
To approve several submitted content items without reviewing them:
- Select the submitted content you want to approve or decline.
- Click Approve All or click Decline All (
). The applicable message appears. - To continue, click OK. The approved content is either submitted to the next publisher, published immediately to the Web site, or not published, depending on the approval chain set for the content.
Example Approval Chain
The approval chain begins when a content contributor submits a new or edited content. If email is enabled, an email is sent to the next approver in the approval chain.
The following example follows a typical content block from creation to publication. Three users make up this approval chain.
- Sports Writer - creates sports content
- Sports Editor - edits and publishes all sports articles
- Editor In Chief - edits and publishes all articles
Each user has different permissions that correspond to their roles.
Creating Content
The first step is to create content. To create new content, follow these steps.
- Log in to Ektron as a Sports Writer.
- Create content.
- Click Submit. The content is placed into the approval chain. The next user in the chain receives an email saying the content is ready for approval.
NOTE: Emails are only sent if your administrator enables them.
The content contributor, Sports Writer, has completed his role in the approval chain but continues to receive emails notifying him of changes in the content’s status.
After Sports Writer submits the content, the first user in the approval chain, Sports Editor, receives an email stating content needs his approval. He can change and approve the content or decline it.
Sports Editor logs into Ektron, navigates to his desktop, where he sees the Content Awaiting Approval panel.
He clicks the View All link and sees all content awaiting his approval.
The approvals folder window displays information such as title, who submitted it, go live date, etc. The Sports editor clicks the submitted content.
The View Content Awaiting Approvals window appears listing all information necessary to decide whether to approve or decline the content.
At the approval window, the Sports Editor has these options.
- Approve—Send content to next approver in approval chain.
- Decline
- Send email to creator, notifying him/her that content was declined.
- Remove content from approval chain.
- Edit —Invokes the editor. From here, the approver can change the content.
For demonstration purposes, we choose Publish.
Second Approver
After the content is approved, the next approver in the approval chain receives an email saying that the content is ready for approval.
EditorInChief logs in to Ektron and accesses his Workarea. The Workarea has an Approval folder with the content awaiting his approval. EditorInChief navigates through the Approval folder until he finds the content Red Sox win World Series.
From this window, EditorInChief can view information about the content, including title, go live date, user who created it, etc. He then clicks the content he wants to approve.
This window is similar to the previous approver’s but includes a Publish button at the top of the screen. The EditorInChief has a publish button (instead of a submit button) because he is the last approver in the approval chain. When he approves the content, it is published to the Web site.
Like the Sports editor, the EditorInChief has the following options:
- Publish—Publish the content.
- Decline
- Sends an email to the creator, notifying him/her that content was declined.
- Removes content from the approval chain.
Edit —Invokes the editor. The approver changes the content.
After reviewing the content, the EditorInChief decides it is great and publishes it. At this point, the content becomes live on the Web site, and the approval chain is complete.
The user who created the content receives an email notifying him that it was published.
Using the Approval Method
The Approval Method determines if content must be approved by all users in the chain, or only users higher up in the chain than the user making the edits. The approval method only affects the approval process if the person submitting content for publishing is a member of the approval chain.
Two approval methods are available.
- Force All Approvers—All users in approval chain must approve the content, beginning with the first
- Do Not Force All Approvers—Approvers after the user submitting content in the approval chain must approve the content
For example, assume the approval chain, user or user group name and approval order, is set as follows:
- Content contributor—1
- Department Head—2
- Webmaster—3
If the Approval Method is Force All Approvers, and the Department Head submits content, the content must be approved by the content contributor, then the department head, and the Webmaster before it is published.
If the Approval Method is Do Not Force All Approvers, and the Department Head submits content, the content must only be approved the Webmaster before it is published.
Changing the Approval Method
By default, the approval method is set to Do Not Force All Approvers. To change the approval method for a content folder or item, follow these steps.
- Access the approval table, as described in Viewing a Folder’s Approval Chain.
- Click Edit (). The Edit Approval Method screen appears.
- Select an approval method by enabling the applicable radio button.
- Click Update.