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Setting approval chains

An approval chain is a series of users or user groups who must approve content before it can be published to your website.

An approval chain lets you control how and when your website is updated. For example, if your Web master needs to approve every new content item or update of an existing item, the Web master would be last member of every approval chain and exert total control over the site.

Alternatively, you could set up a less centralized organization, where each department head controls a section. To accommodate this, set up an approval chain for each department, and assign the department head as the last member of the chain. When the last person in the chain approves content, it goes live. Also, if a user deletes content, before it is removed from Ektron, it must pass through the approval 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.

You can approve, edit, or decline content submitted to you or your user group. The following chart illustrates the approval process.

NOTE: An approver can edit the content and publish it, unless Force All Approvers is set, in which case an edit by any approver would cause the approval chain to start over.

You can create approval chains for a folder and content within a folder. If a content approval chain exists, it overrides the folder approval chain.

You can also set up an approval chain for a language. If you initialize new foreign language content with content from another language, the new content initially has no workflow. You must add it as you would any other workflow. See also: Translating content manually.

An approval chain can include any number of users or user groups.

NOTE: 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

Ektron can automatically send email notification, informing users that content work flow events have either taken place or are requested of them. For example:

The list of automatic emails and directions for customizing their content are described in Customizing Ektron email with tokens.

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. See Setting the approval method.

Creating an approval chain for a content folder

Prerequisite

Only administrators group members 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

  1. Click the Content tab.
  2. From the left frame of the Workarea, select a folder.
  3. Choose View > Language and select the language of the approval chain you want to view.
  4. Choose View > Properties.
  5. Click Approvals ().

    The screen shows the following information about the approval chain.

    • its language
    • every user and user group in the chain
    • the approval order
    • the approval method See also: Setting the approval method
    • buttons for modifying the approval chain and method

Adding approvers

Best Practice 

Assign user groups (and not individual users) to an approval chain. In this way, if someone is out of the office, any group member can approve the content.

  1. Access the approval table, as described in Viewing a folder’s approval chain.
  2. Select the language of the approval chain. The chain only applies to content in this language.
  3. Click Add. The Add Approvals screen appears.

    NOTE: Only users and user groups with permissions to the folder appear. See Adding a user or user group to the permissions screen for more information.

  4. Click the user or user group to add to the approval chain.
  5. Click OK.

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 approval authority 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:

  1. Access the approval table as described in Viewing a folder’s approval chain.
  2. Select the language.
  3. Click Reorder Items (). The Edit Approval Order screen appears.
  4. Click the user or group whose approval order you want to change.

  5. Click Up () or Down () to move the user or group to the desired order.
  6. Click Update.

Deleting approvers

WARNING! If a user is deleted from a folder's Permissions screen, the user is automatically deleted from the folder's approval chain.

  1. Access the approval table as described in Viewing a folder’s approval chain.
  2. Select the language.
  3. Click Delete (). The Remove Approval screen appears.
  4. Click the user or group that you want to remove from the approval chain.
  5. Click OK.

Creating an approval chain for content

You can change the approval chain for a specific content item. Use the View Content screen's Manage Approvals button to do this.

  1. Go to the folder that contains the content.
  2. Right click the content and choose View Properties.
  3. Click Manage Approvals (). The content’s approval chain appears.

    If the approval chain is inherited, you must break inheritance.

  4. From this screen, you can perform these actions:
    • Add. Add approvers
    • . Remove approvers
    • . Change the order of users in the approval chain
    • . Change the approval method
    • Content language. Change the language of the approval chain

Approving or declining content

  1. Workarea > Reports > Contents > Approvals. All content submitted to you appears. You can click the content to view it, the summaryA short description that supplements a content item's title on a Web page. Content authors compose a summary when creating or editing content. Server controls and widgets can display a content title and summary to attract readers to the full story. Summaries can include images and text formatting., metadataInformation about a content item, such as its title and language. Some types of metadata are [Searchable.] Can be found by the search. [Meta tag.] Resides in a content’s source code, helping search engines find it. [HTML tag.] Information about content used by a Web browser. [Content tags.] Keywords that can be assigned to content and library items. * Simple Dublin Core. 15 standard fields that cover useful information about content., and so on.

    NOTE: An approver can edit the content and publish it, unless Force All Approvers is set, in which case an edit by any approver would cause the approval chain to start over.

  2. Check all content you want to approve or decline. To select all displayed content, check the box in the title row.
  3. Click Approve All or click Decline All (). The applicable message appears.

  4. To continue, click OK. The approved content is either submitted to the next publisher, published immediately to the website, or not published, depending on the approval chain set for the content.

Example approval chain

The following example follows a typical content block from creation to publication. Three users make up this approval chain.

Each user has different permissions that correspond to their roles.

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.

First approver

After the Sports Writer submits the content, the first user in the approval chain, Sports Editor, receives an email stating content needs approval. Sports Writer can change and approve the content or decline it.

Sports Editor logs into Ektron, goes to the desktop, and sees the Content Awaiting Approval panel.

Sports Editor clicks the View All link and sees all content awaiting approval. The approvals folder window displays information such as title, who submitted it, go live date, and so on. 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.

    NOTE: An approver can edit the content and publish it, unless Force All Approvers is set, in which case an edit by any approver would cause the approval chain to start over.

For this example, 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 the Workarea. The Workarea has an Approval folder with the content awaiting approval. EditorInChief gos through the Approval folder to 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, and so on. EditorinChief then clicks the content to be approved.

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 this user is the last approver in the approval chain. When the EditorInChief approves the content, it is published to the website.

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.

    NOTE: An approver can edit the content and publish it, unless Force All Approvers is set, in which case an edit by any approver would cause the approval chain to start over.

After reviewing the content, the EditorInChief decides it is great and publishes it. At this point, the content becomes live on the website, and the approval chain is complete. The user who created the content receives an email notification that it was published.

Setting 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 creating or editing the content. The approval method affects the approval process only if the person submitting or editing content is a member of the approval chain.

Two approval methods are available.

The Approval Method applies to all content in a folder, regardless of its language.

Approval method example

For example, assume the approval method is set as follows:

  1. Content contributor
  2. Department Head
  3. Web Master

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, then 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

Prerequisite

If the approval chain is inherited, you must break inheritance.

By default, the approval method is set to Do Not Force All Approvers. To change the approval method for a content folder or item:

  1. Click the Content tab.
  2. From the left frame of the Workarea, select a folder.
  3. Choose View > Language and select the language of the approval chain you want to view.
  4. Choose View > Properties.
  5. Click Approvals ().
  6. Click Edit (). The Edit Approval Method screen appears.
  7. Select an approval method by clicking the applicable radio button.
  8. Click Update.

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