Workflows are an efficient way to ensure content governance. They allow you to oversee the live content on your government website and decide which content gets deleted. They are also highly customizable.
When you create a workflow, you can choose which content types move through it and which roles and users can approve or reject content.
Here are our tips for setting up efficient and effective workflows.
Approvers and Custom Roles
Workflows allow you to choose which roles can approve or reject content and which, if any, roles can skip the workflow. From the Internal approvers user list, you can also choose which users with the role are the default approvers.
Because workflow approvers are based on roles, you can also create custom roles with workflow permissions and assign them only to specific users for granular control over content governance.
We recommend you choose the approvers first, so you can better understand what content types should go through the workflow. For example, if you have a communications team that approves news articles and public notices, you can include both content types in one workflow.
You should also keep your reviewer list small, so everyone understands what they need to do and is accountable for the content.
Choosing Content Types
We always recommend you set your workflows for specific or often-updated content types. For example, you may need your communications team to review your news and media releases before they go live, so you can set your workflow to apply to OC News Article pages.
Conversely, OC Landing Pages are rarely updated as they contain dynamic content lists. The best option for landing pages may be to use the external review option or a more generic workflow.
If you have language packs installed, you can also build workflows for different languages to ensure the accuracy of each page.
Workflow Emails and Actioning Content
You can create email templates for workflows and set up scenarios in which they're sent to include the exact information your approvers and content authors require. The email templates let you use data fields to pipe information so that one template will work for all pages in a workflow.
You can pick and choose what you include in the emails, but here are some data fields you may want to use for an effective email. You may choose not to use all of them.
| Data field | Purpose | Useful for |
| Name | The name of the content page | All scenarios |
| Author Name | The user who last edited the page version | All scenarios |
| Link | A link to the live content page | When a page is approved and published |
| User Performing Action | The user who has made the most recent action for the page | All scenarios |
| Stage Name | The stage of the workflow that the page is in | When a page enters a workflow, particularly if there are multiple stages for the workflow |
| Latest Comments | The last comment submitted with the page version | When a page has been rejected and needs edits |
| Review Item Link (Content) | A link to the page in the admin, from which reviewers can check all content and preview the live page. This is good for checking internal content, like content labels. | When a page is entering the workflow |
| Preview Item Link (Content) | A link to the page preview and comment field, without accessing the admin | When a page is entering the workflow |
| External Approver Link (Content) | A link to the content page that will work for external approvers who cannot access the admin | When a page needs external review |
If you need more assistance with workflow email templates, check out these sample templates to get started. Additionally, remember to train your reviewers on how to action content in the workflow, particularly if you have emails going out to several reviewers.