Documentation Center

Defining initial statuses

When a new object or object version is created in the repository, the object/version needs to receive a status in order to become part of the workflow.

About this task

It is possible to define a different initial status depending on the user role of the user who creates the object or object version. Usually, regular users submit content in a status of a Draft type. For system administrators, you may want to create an initial status that bypasses part of the workflow. For instance, when uploading legacy content, you may want to upload the content in the initial status of Released or Approved.

For a specific role, the initial status can be defined differently for each object type since images, topics, maps or libraries (topics) can each have a different creation and/or review process.

Procedure

  1. Sign in to Organize Space as a user with administrator-level credentials.
  2. On the top tab level, select the Settings tab.
  3. On the second tab level, select the XML Settings tab.
  4. On the third tab level, select the Statuses tab.
  5. Scroll down to the end of the Transitions section, where you will find a series of InitialStates sections, one for each user role, as specified in the userrole attribute of the InitialStates element.
  6. To set initial states for a new user role, create a new InitialStates section with userrole set to the name of the new user role. Within the InitialStates element, define one or more Status elements, with a ref attribute set to a valid status name --the name of the initial status of an item created by a user with this user role.
  7. To restrict the initial status you specified to only certain item types, within the Status, insert a MetaDataCondition section containing one or more Cardtype subelements with a value attribute set to the object type for which this initial status can be set.
    For example, your InitialStates section might end up looking like this:
    <InitialStates userrole="MyUserRole">
      <Status ref="VSTATUSDRAFT">
        <MetaDataCondition>
          <Cardtype value="CTMASTER">
          <Cardtype value="CTMAP">
          <Cardtype value="CTLIB">
          <Cardtype value="CTTEMPLATE">
        </MetaDataCondition>
      </Status>
      <Status ref="VSTATUSRELEASED">
        <MetaDataCondition>
          <Cardtype value="CTIMG">
        </MetaDataCondition>
      </Status>
    </InitialStates>

    That is, when a user with the user role MyUserRole creates a map, topic, Library Topic or object of type Other, its initial status will be Draft, but if that same user creates an image, its initial status will be Released.

  8. Select Save to apply your changes.

Results

Now when any user in the user role you modified creates an object of the type you selected, or an object version, this new object/version will have the selected initial status.