15 Using Workflows

Oracle Content Server's workflow features can be used with Site Studio to create and maintain your site. With workflows, you can ensure a smooth flow of information from the designer to the manager to the contributor, and so on. You can also control what passes between designers, such as a page template, or a cascading style sheet.

This section covers the following topics:

"About Workflows"
"Workflow Types"
"Workflow Experience for Contributors"
"Setting Up a Workflow"
"Workflow Examples"

For more information on workflows, see the Oracle Content Server documentation.

15.1 About Workflows

When you design a workflow for Site Studio, for the most part you follow the same processes and steps that you would if you were creating a workflow for any other content item on the content server. One key difference is that you must determine which contribution regions (that is, editable parts of a web page) are part of the workflow and who has access to content in those regions.

See "Workflow Experience for Contributors" for more information on how a contributor gains access to a workflow to review a portion of a Web site.

15.2 Workflow Types

There are two types of workflows:

Basic workflows, in which the review process is initiated manually for specific content items.
Criteria workflows, in which a content item enters the workflow automatically when it is checked into the content server and its metadata matches predefined criteria specified in Site Studio Designer and the content server.

Criteria workflows are most commonly used with Site Studio.

15.3 Workflow Experience for Contributors

To add or edit content on a Web site, a contributor typically clicks the edit icon in the contribution graphic on a web page in contribution mode to open Site Studio Contributor, where the content assigned to the contribution region is available in an editable form. With workflows, a participant first receives an e-mail message with a link to the web page to be reviewed. Clicking this link opens the web page already in contribution mode.

After the web page is in contribution mode, one or more contribution graphics are visible, one for each editable contribution region on the page. If the content of a contribution region is in a workflow, the contribution graphic includes a special icon to the left of the region name (a green gear) to indicate this (see Figure 15-1).

Figure 15-1 Contribution Graphic Showing Workflow Indicator

Description of "Figure 15-1 Contribution Graphic Showing Workflow Indicator"

The contributor can then choose a workflow option in the contribution graphic menu, depending on how the workflow was designed and the contributor's role in it:

Approve Document: If the contributor clicks this option, the next participant in the workflow is notified automatically by e-mail. After the last workflow participant accepts the contributor data file that stores the content for the web page, the contributor data file is released to its final destination. The web page itself can then become "live" on the Web site.
Reject Document: If the contributor clicks this option, they have the opportunity to complete a rejection form to explain why they are rejecting the content. An e-mail is then sent to the previous reviewer in the workflow.
Edit: Clicking this option in the menu is the same as clicking the contribution icon without workflow set up. That is, Contributor opens with the content of the contribution region in editable form.

15.4 Setting Up a Workflow

Setting up a workflow in Site Studio is the same as setting up a workflow in Oracle Content Server, with one additional step: when you set up a placeholder definition in Designer, you must enable workflow functionality for it. This adds workflow options to the placeholder when the page is viewed in contribution mode.

To enable workflow functionality for a placeholder definition, select the appropriate workflow check boxes:

Workflow approve: Select this check box to add an "Approve Document" option to the contribution graphic menu, allowing the reviewers in a workflow to approve the region content.
Workflow reject: Select this check box to add a "Reject Document" option to the contribution graphic menu, allowing the reviewers in a workflow to reject the region content.

15.5 Workflow Examples

It may be useful to use workflow functionality for any the following content items used by Site Studio:

"Contributor Data Files in Workflows"
"Native Documents in Workflows"
"Images in Workflows"

These files must contain the appropriate Site Studio metadata to be recognized as part of the Web site. You may decide to enter any one of these content types into workflow, perhaps using a custom metadata field of "workflow" with values that are recognizable by your organization.

Note:

Page templates, subtemplates, region templates, and scripts do not have the opportunity for approval/rejection within workflow if they are edited with Designer.

15.5.1 Contributor Data Files in Workflows

Forcing a contributor data file to go through a criteria workflow is the most common workflow process for contributors to the Web site. This file represents the actual content of a web page and is therefore updated with information whenever a contributor edits the web page in Contributor.

When you add a contributor data file to a workflow, you are in effect ensuring that any changes contributors make to a contribution region of a Web site go through an approval process before the changes can be posted to the live Web site.

15.5.2 Native Documents in Workflows

Adding a native document to a criteria workflow could be useful in several situations:

Inline dynamic conversions
Random dynamic conversions
Dynamic lists that use dynamically converted documents

For native document to be converted to HTML successfully, Dynamic Converter must be installed and running on the content server.

Inline Dynamic Conversions

It may be useful to add a native document to a criteria workflow if you have an inline dynamic conversion (where the document is included in the site layout) to ensure that any changes to the native document are subject to an approval process before the document is actually included in the Web site.

Random Dynamic Conversions

It may be useful to add a native document to a criteria workflow if you have a random dynamic conversion (in which a random dynamic converter fragment containing a query is added to the Web site) to ensure that any content items checked into the content server do not become part of the site without first going through an approval process.

Note:

A content item is included in the content server search results when it is released from a workflow. As a result of this, a content item appears in a dynamic list only if there is a released revision of that item.

For example, you could display a randomly selected quote on your Web site through dynamic conversion where every native document added with a quote is included in the site in no particular order. If you place these documents into a criteria workflow, a document is not released until it has gone through the workflow and has been approved. It is then included in the dynamic conversion results and displayed on the Web site.

Dynamic Lists That Use Dynamically Converted Documents

It may be useful to add a native document to a criteria workflow if you have a dynamic list that targets dynamically converted documents. This enables you to ensure that all native documents checked into the content server that match the dynamic query results go through a workflow before they are added to the dynamic list that is displayed on the Web site. This approach could be useful to display a dynamic list of press releases on your Web site that targets dynamically converted documents.

Note:

15.5.3 Images in Workflows

Adding an image to a criteria workflow may be useful to ensure, for example, that all images checked into the content server are reviewed and approved by your graphic designer before they are added to the live Web site.