Publishing with an Approval Process 

Purpose

Certain people may need to check and approve documents before they are published in the portal. The checking of documents can encompass several areas, and different people or departments can carry out different checks. A document can be checked for accuracy of content, language, and style, as well as for the suitability of the layout, and adherence to corporate design guidelines.

 

Requirements

The approval process has been set up for the folder in which the documents to be published are located (see Setting Up the Approval Process).

 

Process Flow

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       1.      When an author creates a document, it receives the status In Progress.

The document can only be read by those with write permission for it.

If a document has several versions, anyone with read access only can see the version that has most recently been released.

 

       2.      The document is sent for approval as soon as the author has completed it.

They do this by choosing Submit for Approval.  This starts the workflow. The document receives the status For Approval.

At this point, the document is only visible to its authors and to approvers.

 

       3.      The approvers of the first approval step receive a notification requesting that they approve or reject the document.

 

       4.      As soon as the first step has been approved, a notification is sent to the approvers of the second step.

Approval by any one of the assigned approvers is sufficient for each approval step. This is still the case if several people, a group, or a role have been assigned to an approval step. All approval steps are processed sequentially.

 

       5.      As soon as an approver assigned to the final approval step has approved the document, the document receives the status Released.

The document is now visible in the portal to all users with read permission.

If the document is contained in an indexed data source, the system starts indexing the document at this point. Only then can the document be found using the search or in the categories.

After the document has been released, the system sends notifications about the document to all subscribed users.

 

       6.      As soon as a document becomes obsolete, you can archive it.

The document receives the status Archived. When you archive a document, the physical file remains in the folder, but the document is only visible in the portal to users with write permission.

The document is removed from the index and can no longer be found by searching or in the categories.

 

Rejecting a document sent for approval

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If an approver rejects a document, the person who sent the document to be approved receives a notification.

The document now has the status Rejected.

Approvers can use the Feedback function to inform the author of the reason for the rejection (see Feedback).

 

Terminating the approval process

The author of a document can terminate the approval process as long as the document still has the status For Approval. The document receives the status In Progress again.

 

Skipping the approval process

Anyone who has the service permission Edit Approvers for the folder can skip the approval process. If you choose this function, the document in question is published immediately without any further checks.

 

Notifications

All notifications for the approval process are sent to the universal worklist and by e-mail.

 

See also:

Notifications for KM Folders in the UWL