3.2.5 Introduction to workflow for the River Bend Site 

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Introduction to Workflow for the River Bend site

A group in the River Bend Coffee and Tea Company needs the ability to view data. To review data each document has to go through a workflow after it is created. The workflows that you build in this exercise are used in the authoring template that you will build in the next section. The following steps comprise the tasks that are required to complete this exercise:

• Creating the workflow actions (For specific steps on how to create these, please refer to the document 3.4.2-workflow-for-the-river-bend-sample-site)
• Creating the workflow stages
• Creating the Express Workflow
• Creating the Approval Workflow

Overview of Workflow for the River Bend site

River Bend wants two different ways of publishing information:

• Approval: this should be default working mode. Items may have four different states (draft, approval, published and expired)
• Express: to cover exceptions items may be directly published from draft to published

This image shows a graphical representation of both workflows:

• Stages are represented by rectangular shapes
• State is represented by the shape color: orange for daft items, green for published items and blue for expired items
• Actions appear before and after each shape to represent what will be executed when the item enters or exits that stage.

Figure 10B (325_1)

For specific steps on how to create these, please refer to the document 3.4.2.-workflow for-the-river-bend-sample-site

Creating the workflow actions

1.Click New and select Workflow Action Publish Action
2. In the name field enter Publish
3. Click Save…, and then click Save and Close

For the rest of the actions, repeat steps 1 through 3. Refer to the following table for the action names and action types

Action	Action Type
Email for rejected Content	Email Action
Expired	Expire Action
Move content on expiry date	Scheduled Move Action
Generate thumbnail	Custom Action

Note The custom action will not be explained here. It is described in detail in section in document 3.4.2.-workflow

For the Move content on expiry date select Expiry Date from the Date Type list and choose an appropriate date to see this action, for example tomorrow's date.
For the Email for rejected Content, select E-mail authors. E-mail Stage Approvers is selected by default. Add an apology message in Additional e-mail text.

Creating workflow stages

1. Click New and select Workflow Stage
2. In the name field enter Draft
3. Click Save…, and then click Save and Close
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 for the Approval stage
5. Click New and select Workflow Stage
6. In the name field enter Published
7. In the Properties section, click Select Actions under Execute on Entering Stage to select an action that is performed on any content that enters this stage of the workflow
8. Click Add.
9. The Execute on Entering Stage dialog box opens. It lists all the available actions. From the list, choose the following Publish, Generate thumbnail, Move content on expiry date.

Note Generate thumbnail can be ignored if not added yet

10. Click Save…, and then click Save and Close
11. Repeat steps 5 through 10 to create Expired stage. Where you set Execute on Entering Stage action to Expired.
12. Repeat steps 5 through 10 to create Reject stage. Where you set Execute on Entering Stage action to Email for rejected content.

Creating the Express Workflow

The Express Workflow is the express workflow that publishes content immediately without approval. We use this workflow for this exercise to avoid time consuming approval activities. Follow these steps to create the Express workflow:

1. Click New and select Workflow
2. In the Name field, type Express
3. Click Select Workflow Stages in the Properties section.
4. Click Add.
5. Select Draft and Published from the list of workflow stages.
6. Click Ok.

Creating the Approval Workflow

This guided practice creates a workflow that publishes content with approval, expiry, and reject stages. Follow these steps to create the Approval workflow:

1. Click New and select Workflow
2. In the Name field, type Approval
3. Click Select Workflow Stages in the Properties section.
4. Click Add.
5. Select the following
- Approval
- Draft
- Expired
- Published
6. Select the Draft stage
7. Use the Move arrows, located to the right of the Workflow Stages list, to move the Draft stage to the top of the list.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 to rearrange the Workflow stages as follows:
- Draft
- Approval
- Published
- Expired
9. Click Ok.
10. Click Select Reject Stage
11. Select the Reject stage
12. Click Ok.
13. Click Save..., and then click Save and Close