New features for IXIASOFT CCMS 6.3 with configuration changes

Document Content view

To support the new Document Content view, there are some optional configuration changes that you can make after the upgrade. You can configure the following:

The default viewing mode in the Content view for different groups of users (for example, writers or reviewers)
The maximum number of topics allowed in a map before the View Topic Content mode defaults to the View Topic Reference mode to improve load times

For details on how to configure these, see the section on configuring IXIASOFT CCMS Web in the Administration Guide for IXIASOFT CCMS.

Upgrading IXIASOFT CCMS Output Generator

To support changes in DITA Open Toolkit 3.x, CCMS Output Generator 6.1 and later versions create output using a new method.

CCMS Output Generator 6.1 and later versions create output using a new method. You must upgrade your conductor files to use this new method if you want to be able to do the following:

To generate output in CCMS Web
To create Approvals and Collaborative Reviews in CCMS Web
To use DITA-OT 3.x

But if you still want to use older versions of DITA-OT, you can. CCMS Output Generator 6.6 works with all versions of DITA-OT though some versions may require a few additional changes.

Changes for Approvals and Collaborative Reviews

In IXIASOFT CCMS 6.3, the Collaborative Review and Approval processes in IXIASOFT CCMS Web have been enhanced to offer more functionality to writers and reviewers. As a result, there are a number of configuration changes.

Change	Description	Manual or Automatic
New names for statuses of Collaborative Reviews	The default names of statuses have changed to better represent the available actions. In CCMS Web 6.3, the new default status names for Collaborative Reviews are: Review: The Collaborative Review appears on reviewers' and writers' My Assignments pages. Users can add annotations, reply to other users' annotations, and mark themselves as finished. In Discussion: The Collaborative Review still appears on reviewers' and writers' My Assignments pages, but reviewers can only reply to existing annotations. New annotations are not allowed. Done: The Collaborative Review is complete. Writers can still open the Collaborative Review and see the annotation and replies, but it is read-only.	Manual Change the status names after completing the upgrade. For more details, see Making manual configuration changes.
Changes to active roles and statuses	Both reviewers and writers are able to work on a Collaborative Review that is in Authoring:closed status (what is now Authoring:in discussion satus in CCMS 6.3).	Manual Update the roles.xml file to add the Authoring:in discussion status (or the equivalent of Authoring:closed in your old configuration) as an active status for the roles that are already associated with Collaborative Reviews. For more details, see Making manual configuration changes.
Creation of Collaborative Review and Approval objects in CCMS Web	Users can now create Collaborative Review and Approval objects in CCMS Web. These actions are controlled by the CreateReview and CreateApproval methods in accessrights.xml, which already exist. The default configuration is that Collaborative Reviews can be created at any status while Approvals can only be created at Authoring:approval. To support the asynchronous generation of Collaborative Review and Approval objects in CCMS Web, a new status is required in their workflow configuration. By default, this status is named `creating`, and it has the value `start` for its type attribute. While Collaborative Review and Approval objects have this status, they are not visible on users' My Assignments pages, but they can be found through Search. If Collaborative Review and Approval objects generate successfully, then they move to their work statuses and become available for assigned users on their My Assignments pages. If the objects do not generate successfully, they are removed from the system. An output for the object appears on the My Outputs page of the creator, who can use it to check the error log and find the reason for the failure.	Automatic The Web Installer creates the new status while installing CCMS Web.
Creating annotations	Since Collaborative Reviews are now visible to all users (based on the Content Level Security properties of their map), CCMS Web needs additional access rights to determine which users can add annotations. AnnotateCollaborativeReview controls which users can make annotations in Collaborative Reviews When opening a Collaborative Review, CCMS Web first checks if the user is assigned to the Collaborative Review and then checks if the user has this method.	Automatic The Web Installer adds the AnnotateCollaborativeReviewmethod in the accessrights.xml file while installing CCMS Web. The method is enabled for the roles that are active for Collaborative Reviews. (By default, Reviewer and Writer).
Resolving annotations	Since Collaborative Reviews are now visible to all users (based on the Content Level Security properties of their map), CCMS Web needs additional access rights to determine which users can resolve annotations. ResolveAnnotation controls which users can change the status of annotations. When opening a Collaborative Review, CCMS Web first checks if the user is assigned to the Collaborative Review and then checks if the user has this method.	Automatic The Web Installer adds the ResolveAnnotation method in the accessrights.xml file while installing CCMS Web. The method is enabled for the roles that are active for Collaborative Reviews and that can create them. (By default, Writer).
Changing statuses of Collaborative Reviews	In CCMS Web 6.3, the workflow operations for Collaborative Review have been standardized to use the Change Status action in the Move dialog. The method Change Status in accessrights.xml will be modified to make sure that: Writers (or the equivalent role) have the right to change the status of Collaborative Reviews Reviewers (or the equivalent role) do not have the right to change the status of Collaborative Review. The second rule is necessary to make sure that reviewers have the Mark as Finished option in the Move dialog instead of the Change Status drop-down.	Automatic The Web Installer checks the Change Status method in accessrights.xml to make sure the two rules are in place. If it does not find a condition that allows the Writer role (or an equivalent role) to change the status of Collaborative Review objects, it will add one. If it finds a condition that allows the Reviewer role (or an equivalent role) to change the status of Collaborative Review objects, it will try to remove it. If it cannot remove the Reviewer role from the condition, it will log a warning in the installation log.
Add the Approvals in the My Assignments page of the Writers	When a writer creates an Approval, that Approval now appears on his My Assignments page so he can follow the process. The roles configuration will be modified to add the Approval object to the Writer role with the status open as active.	Automatic The Web Installer modifies the roles.xml file to add the Approval object type to the Writer role (or its equivalent) with the status Authoring:open as active.
Canceling Approvals	In CCMS Web 6.3, the workflow operations for the Approval have been standardized to use the Change Status action in the Move dialog. The method Change Status in accessrights.xml will be modified to make sure that Writers (or the equivalent role) have the right to change the status of an Approval at open, and the Approval workflow configuration is modified to make sure that the status can only be changed from open to cancelled.	Automatic The Web Installer removes approved and rejected as the next states for open in the approval_status.xml file. It then adds a condition in the Change Status method to allow the Writer role (or its equivalent) to change the status of Approval that are at Authoring:open