Managing an Approval Workflow

A workflow is a pre-defined series of steps that allow Content Authors to submit their content changes to a Content Approver. Assigning a workflow to a website ensures that Agency content has been reviewed accordingly and meets state policy standards and processes.

NOTE: Only content that has been approved by appropriate Approvers are published.

 

A Basic Content Approval Workflow

The basic workflow process for approving content on your website is as followed:

1. The Content Author submits a Draft version of the page created or modified.
   
   • An email is sent to the assigned Approver(s) to review the changes.
2. The Approver reviews the content and takes action.
   • Approve the content
   • Reject the content
   • Modify the content and approve
   • If approved, the changes are published immediately.
   • If rejected, the changes go back to the Author for modification
3. An email is sent to the Content Author with the action taken by the Approver.
   
   

Multiple Approvers

The System Administrator can add multiple Approver names to a website to review. If this occurs, then all the Approvers will receive an email when a page is submitted for approval. The first Approver to respond will work through the process and the other Approvers do not need to review or take any action. However, there is no notification to the other Approvers that one of them is taking on the review.

 

Multiple Tiers of Approval

An Agency folder can contain multiple tiers of Approvals, meaning approvals would go through multiple Approvers before being published.

NOTE: System Administrators do not have access to add multiple tiers of approval to a workflow. Submit a workflow request to add multiple tiers of approval to a workflow.

Setting up a workflow is a two-step process.

• First, the Approver’s contact information must be added in the Workflow Approval List.
• Second, the Agency Folders containing content for approval must be assigned a workflow.

 

Adding, Modifying, and Deleting Approvers in the Workflow Approval List

When an instance of your Agency website is created in Sitecore, a workflow approval list is also created. This list contains all of your Agency’s Approvers. Access this list from the Content Editor and navigate to the Approval List under _resources > Approval chains > Approval List.

NOTE: System Administrators can only add/delete/modify names on the workflow lists. They cannot create a new list or workflows. Submit a workflow request to create a new list or workflow.

1. Add an Approver to the List.
   • From the Ribbon by selecting Insert Approver
     
     
     
   • OR by right-clicking the Approval List title in the Content Tree and inserting Approver.
     
     
     
2. Enter in the Approver’s name and email.
3. Save the changes.
4. Publish the folder to to ensure pages show up on the site.

To modify the Approver’s contact information, select the Approver’s name and view the Workflow Data area in the Content Area.


To delete the Approver:

• Right-click the Approver’s name from the Content Tree and select the Delete option.
• OR select the Approver’s name from the Content Tree and click the Delete icon in the Ribbon.

 

Assigning a Workflow to a Folder

The System Administrator will assign the workflow to a folder containing content for approval through the Content Editor.

1. Log into Sitecore.
2. Select Content Editor icon .
3. Select a folder from the content tree to assign a workflow to and view the folder properties by selecting the Content tab.
   
4. Click Lock and Edit.
   
   
5. Scroll to the Base Folder Data section and select the workflow of choice from the drop down.
   
   
   
6. Select the Include in Search checkbox to allow this folder page to be displayed in the Agency search results page. Any pages created under this folder is automatically searched.
7. Save the changes.
8. Publish the folder to to ensure pages show up on the site.