Collaborating Using Workflows

If, in your organization or company, content is created and maintained in teams, the Web Builder’s workflows are an excellent tool for managing the editorial cycle – from authoring through copyediting and reviewing to publishing. Workflows provide an enterprise level system to collaborate among the various parties involved.

As an editor, workflows allow you to focus on specific sections of the Web-Builder-based website relevant to your activity as an author or maintainer. Additionally, workflows may enforce the so-called four-eyes principle to ensure that content changes are reviewed by at least one other pair of eyes before the working copy gets published.

As an editor, you can either be invited as a collaborator to an existing working copy, or create one yourself using the “New” button on the “Working copies” sidebar panel. Clicking it opens a dialog that lets you enter the title of the new working copy to be created. If you are on the published content, you can also simply click the “Edit” button. This allows you to either select an existing working copy (if there are any) or create a new one.

Note that the “existing working copy” option includes all the working copies you have access to, either because you created them, or because you have been invited as a collaborator.

As you create a working copy, you can select the workflow that fits your task best using the bottommost dropdown box. If only one workflow is available, it is selected automatically.

After the working copy has been selected or created, you can start adding or editing content right away unless, as mentioned, the workflow prevents editing the currently displayed page or website section.

The Web Builder indicates non-editable pages by locking the “Edit” mode. After navigating to a page covered by the workflow, the “Edit” switch is unlocked again unless you have been invited and your role as a collaborator does not allow you to modify the working copy’s content.

As an editor not permitted to publish a working copy, you can request to have it published. For this, click the “Request publish” button on the top bar or the “Working copies” sidebar. In the dialog that opens, optionally select a reviewer and hint at the changes to review.

The working copy can then be checked and published by any member of a team permitted to do so, for example by a chief editor.

Chief editors will recognize working copies for which a publish request has been issued by their “Working copies” sidebar. After switching to such a working copy, the Web Builder indicates on the top bar and the sidebar that the working copy can now be checked and published.

If the workflow guiding the working copy includes a review stage, chief editors can simply click “Begin review” and start their work by opening the changes list and picking a page that has been created or edited.

As an editor of the working copy, you cannot continue editing after issuing a publish request. However, you can cancel the request (to rectify an omission, for example) as long as no chief editor has already started their review.

Now, after an editor has requested that their working copy be published, it’s the responsibility of the chief editors to advance things. If the workflow doesn’t demand a review, a member of the chief editors team can simply publish but might first want to take a look at new or changed pages to be on the safe side. For being able to make edits, however, chief editors need to add themselves as a collaborator to the working copy, if they aren’t already in this position.

If, however, the workflow does include a review stage, chief editors can, as mentioned above, click “Start review” and also make further changes, should this be necessary. In the case that more extensive work is required by the editors before the working copy can be published, chief editors can click “Reject” to pass the working copy back to the editors.

After rejecting a working copy, the chief editors who started the review remain in this position and can continue their work after the subsequent publish request.

Last but not least, a reviewer can opt out by clicking “Abandon review”. This is a means to indicate to your other team members that you pulled out of the working copy’s publishing process. You can always join back by clicking “Begin review” once again.