Bundles and workflow
When Bundles are used for collective workflow processing, there are several important things to understand.
Starting workflow on Bundles
Unlike other items, Bundles do not enter a workflow process automatically in response to a trigger; instead, you must start workflow manually. Starting workflow on a Bundle puts into workflow the Bundle itself and all of the items it contains.
- Components
- Page
- Component Templates
- Page Templates
- Template Building Blocks
- other Bundles
It is possible for the items in a Bundle to already be part of completely separate workflow processes. If this is the case, the Bundle's workflow process can be started only when all of its items have completed their own workflow processes.
Items that must be in a Bundle
Components and other types of items can be configured (in their schema) so that you must to add them to a Bundle for workflow. When this is the case, you will be prompted to select the Bundle after you create or edit the item.
When a Bundle contains items that must be in a Bundle, any changes to those items cannot be checked in until the Bundle has started and finished its workflow process. That means that even before the Bundle enters workflow, changes to the mandatory items are not checked in.
To illustrate what this means, imagine the following sequence of events:
- Alice opens a mandatory item that is in a Bundle. The Bundle is subject to workflow but has not entered workflow yet.
- Alice modifies the item and saves and closes the item to commit her changes. The changes are committed but not checked in.
- Boris opens the same item (or explicitly checks it out) and makes a change, but halfway through editing, he changes his mind.
- Boris selects Undo Checkout to discard his changes.
- Content Manager discards all changes that were not checked in, including the changes made by Alice.
To alert Boris, he sees a prompt when he opens (or explicitly checks out) the item, alerting him that he is taking ownership of other users' changes to the item, in addition to the changes he will be making. If Boris explicitly checks out the item and takes ownership, he is not prompted again.
Modifying a Bundle in workflow
When a Bundle has entered workflow, you can perform the following tasks only if the current activity allows it:
- Adding or removing items in the Bundle
- Editing the items in the Bundle
- Editing the metadata of the Bundle
Nested Bundles and Bundle dissolving
Bundles can contain other Bundles. When a Bundle that contains another Bundle enters workflow, the workflow process applies also to the nested Bundle and all items contained in that Bundle. This includes additional nested Bundles.
Depending on the workflow settings in the Bundle Schema, Content Manager may dissolve the Bundle after the workflow process is completed. This means that the Bundle is destroyed, but its items remain. In the case of a workflow process that involves nested Bundles, whether or not a particular Bundle is dissolved depends on that Bundle's own schema having the dissolve setting enabled.
To illustrate, let's consider a scenario where Bundle 'A' is contained within Bundle 'B'. If workflow is started on Bundle 'B', then Bundle 'B' and all of its contents are taken through the workflow process associated with its Bundle Schema. That includes Bundle 'A' and its contents. Furthermore, if Bundle 'A' is based on a Bundle Schema for which this Bundle dissolve option is selected. The option is not selected for the schema of the outer Bundle 'B'. When the workflow process finishes, Bundle 'B' is not dissolved because its Schema does not have the option selected. Bundle 'A' is dissolved, however, because all has the option set in the schema.