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Workflows

The electronic workflow is a feature of SDL LiveContent Architect. You can design and create a workflow to electronically send topics and images to others in your group for authoring, reviewing, translating, or any task required to complete the work.

A workflow is a sequence of connected steps. The flow is of an object that is being transferred from one step, or user, to another. To design and create a workflow understand the following.

The workflow in SDL LiveContent Architect is dependent on:
The status of the object
All objects in the repository have a status. The status indicates where the object is in its lifecycle.
For instance, typically if an object has a status of Draft, it is being authored or reviewed and is not ready to be released for publication.
User role
The user role indicates who has permissions to perform a particular action on the object. It also defines who is assigned to complete the action (or task).
For instance, the Author role is assigned to objects that are in Draft status whereas the Reviewer role is assigned to objects that are in a To be reviewed status. Users are assigned to the appropriate roles and when an object is in a specific status, users assigned that role are available to be assigned to the task.
Status transition
The switch from one status to another for an object.
For instance, when an object is ready for a review, the author changes the status from to To be review and indicates the reviewer user to whom to send it for reviewing.
States
SDL LiveContent Architect divides statuses into two broad categories or states:
  • Draft: Indicates that the document is not yet suited for the intended audience. All states during the authoring process (including reviewing and translating) are defined as draft states and display with a (D) in the state list.
  • Released: Indicates that the document is suited for the intended audience. All states after the end of the authoring process are released states and display with a (R) in the state list. When an object has a released status, only administrators can modify the document.
Inbox
The location where users are notified about pending workflow tasks. The inbox in which the document appears is based on the user role and the state of the document, and other metadata. When the status is changed, the user specifies the new status and the user to whom to send the object. The object appears in the appropriate inbox for the next user.
For instance, when the object is sent from the author in Draft status to the Reviewer in To be reviewed status, the object is placed in the Reviewer inbox. As the recipient of the object, if it is in my Reviewer inbox, I know the task that I must complete.

The first step in creating the workflow is to create a visual representation of the workflow. Below is an example of a simple workflow.

In this workflow, the first task is writing which is associated with the Draft status of an object. The second task is reviewing which is associated with the To be reviewed status. You can see how the flow can go from the author to the reviewer as many times as necessary.

When the author is satisfied, she sends it To be translated. This is another status associated with another role, in this case, the Translator role.

When the translation is done, the translator changes the status to Translated which is associated with yet another role. In this case, it is a publishing manager who releases it for publication. In this last step, the state is no longer Draft but changed to a Released state and ready for publication.