This task is for users with the following roles: OC Site Manager, OC System Administrator, and OC Workflow Manager.
Sometimes you may need to create a workflow with multiple review points, called a multi-stage workflow. For example, a content author will create a new event page, which their supervisor and a web lead must check. In a multi-stage workflow, the event would go to the supervisor in the first stage and, if approved, go to the website lead in stage two. Once approved in stage two, the page will be published.
Multi-stage workflows are created the same way as single-stage workflows; you must select the same content type(s) and new and updated items. If these aspects are the same, the specified content type pages will move through each stage in the order shown in the left-hand menu. In the example below, an OC Event page will move through Stage 1, before Stage 2, and lastly, Stage 3.
You can reorder your workflow stages by dragging and dropping them in the menu. Assigning a content type to several workflow stages means that each page of that content type will need to be approved in each workflow before going live. If your pages undergo unexpected review processes, you may need to delete extraneous workflows.
You must also assign a different approval role to each stage, and you may find it easier to create your own roles specifically for these workflows. Custom roles may make it easier to ensure your workflows send approvals to the correct staff member and troubleshoot your workflow. However, you must ensure that different roles are assigned to approve different workflow stages.
To create a multi-stage workflow:
- Go to More > Workflow from the main menu and create a workflow for each stage individually.
- In the Overview tab, give each stage an appropriate name (such as the approval level) and ensure that both New item and Updated item have been checked for each stage. Please note that if you have New item checked for your stage 1 workflow and only Updated item checked in your stage 2 and 3, then new pages will be published after stage 1, and updated pages will skip straight to stage 2.
- In the Approval tab, check the appropriate role for each stage under Roles who can make approvals. Ensure that each stage has a different approval role specified, and check which roles, if any, can skip the workflow.
- Ensure that the correct content type is checked in the Content Type tab; this must be the same for each stage.
- Save each stage as you finish, and ensure they are correctly ordered in the Content Approval stages menu.