wiki vs alfresco - support for edit workflow??

[bhavin_t]

hi

i want to allow all people to edit content in a particular space, but any changes made should be approved by the manager of that space before it is actually put live. how can i do that? here is the scenario described in greater detail -

* There is a space called "GeneralTrainingDocuments"

* Everyone in the company has "read" access to this space

* I want everyone in the company to also be able to open any document for "editing" (ideally direct inline editing like a wiki)

* I dont however want them committing the changes directly. Any changes they make should be sent for approval to the coordinator of that space

* the coordinator should be able to see the differences and then approve the same, after which the document would get replaced with the new version

* currently with alfresco the problems are as follows

- if i give EVERYONE "Editor" rights, they can directly edit a document and commit the changes without approval

- if i give everyone "ReadOnly" rights, they have to copy the file elsewhere, edit it, email it to the contributor, and ask him to upload it

- another way to do this would be to create another folder in that space where people can drop items after modification for contributor approval, however the experience is not the same as "editing a wiki page". a wiki page editing experience is seamless and therefore encourages more contribution as opposed to a flow where a user needs to copy paste the document into a separate area and then drop it back after editing. this process also results in lesser conflicts

is there any way to do this in alfresco?

- Bhavin

[rivetlogic]

Hi,

One option it to use Simple Workflow.

You can create a space called Pending Approval and have a rule applied to all items in your GeneralTrainingDocuments space that adds a Simple Workflow which moves documents that need approval into the Pending Approval space. You can have similar logic added to all items in the Pending Approval space to move the item back into the GeneralTrainingDocuments space when they are approved.

Only the coordinator should have access to the Pending Approval space.

If you do it this way then the user experience will be simple and intuitive and you wouldn't have to copy and paste documents manually.

You also have the option to check-out and check-in documents if multiple people are expected to edit the same document.

Hope this helps.

–Aladdin

[bhavin_t]

hey

thanks for your post. i am a lil confused though. i have a feeling your suggested solution does not work. the issue -

* In order for ANY user to be able to move documents from GeneralTrainingDocuments space to PendingApproval space, i will need to give "DeleteChildren" permission to everyone on GeneralTrainingDocuments space, which would allow them to delete those items

bhavin

[rivetlogic]

Hi,

If my understanding is correct, you would like to have a shared space for everyone to edit documents, and a way for an authorized person  to be able to approve changes. You would also "not" like for people to have the ability to delete approved documents.

Typcially to acheive this you would have a Drafts space where everyone can edit documents. Upon requesting approval, a document would be "copied" to the Pending Approval space. Upong approval of that document, it is then "moved" to a Published space where people can have read-only access to view the final approved version of the file.

Hope this helps.

–Aladdin

[bhavin_t]

hi

this still does not help . here is what i want to do -

* There is a space "PublishedDocuments" which contains all the documents

* i want to be able to grant a permission to someone where they can read everything in this folder, but ANY changes they want to make to it goes through an approval process requiring the approval of the Coordinator of that space

* in your model, there are TWO spaces "Drafts" and "Published" which both contain a exact replica of the documents

* another problem with your model is that when someone edits a document, say "a.html" in the Drafts area, and then copies it to the "Pending Approval Space" from where it is moved to the "Published" space, this will result in there being two copies of that document in the "Published" space

- Bhavin

[bhavin_t]

i have tried every weay i can think of and i have figured that this is not possible in alfresco. which seems kind of strange, considering that the most basic feature in a document management system should be an edit and approval workflow. here is why i believe this is not possible. please let me know if my thinking is incorrect -

* lets say we have a space "GeneralDocuments"

* Everyone in the company needs to have read access to this space

* I also want everyone in the company to be able to submit changes to any documents in this space, however those changes MUST be approved by the coordinator of the space before the changes are made live

* I do nt want anyone to be able to delete documents in the space or directly make changes without approval from the coordinator

* all ways to do this involve challenges that cannot be solved

* Method 1: if i want to give "checkout" permissions to everyone int he company, i also have to give them "write permissions" which means they can make changes without approval

* Method 2: if i create a "simple workflow" which involves making a copy of the document to another "pendingapproval" folder, then after approval there will be two copies of the document in the final folder

* Method 3: if i create a "simple workflow" which involves "moving" the document instead of copying it, it requires "delete" permissions to be given to everyone

I cannot think of any other method

am i missing something?

- Bhavin

[christianschuhe]

Hello,

I am trying to do a similar thing.
I have
- a Published space where all published and currently valid documents are located. Besides that I created a rule that checks out every document from the Published space into the Modify space as soon as it enters into the published space.
- in the Modify space I created a simple workflow rule that associates a "Request Approval" step to a document that enters the space. Here I had to notice that the simple workflow rules do not apply to checked out versions. Therefore I was not able to call the "Request Approval" command from the menu and my attempt stops here.
- My plan would have been that another workflow step in a "Awaiting Approval" space would have either moved the document back to the Published space where an automated action should have checked the change in again or a reject would have put the change into the "Modify" space again.

Will something like what is outlined in this thread be possible with the advanced workflow capabilities in version 1.4?

Thanks for the great software,