Content workflows
During the process of creating, editing, reviewing, and approving a document, the content moves through a designated workflow and its related status, such as Authoring:work. Each status requires input from users with different roles.
Each status represents a corresponding stage in the process of creating a document.
The status of an object provides an understanding of the following:
- Where it is within your documentation process
- What workflow stage is next
- Who is currently responsible for the object
- What possible workflow stages remain before completion
Every object has a status that reflects the object's current workflow stage. Objects change status according to the workflow defined in your deployment. For example, a topic could move from the initial Contribute status to the final Done status using the example workflow.
Roles and workflows
Each user may have one or more roles. For example, your deployment might have Contributor, Writer, and Reviewer roles.
A subject matter expert (SME) could provide a rough draft of content to a technical writer to refine. In this case, the assigned role for the SME is the Contributor role, and the assigned role for the technical writer is the Writer role. After completing the content edits provided by the SME, the technical writer assigns the SME the Reviewer role and sends the content back for comment and verification of accuracy.
A user with a given role has the responsibility to work on objects at a related status. As different roles need to work on objects, a writer or other user can change the status of the object to permit users with the specified role to work on the object.
Object dependencies and workflows
An object cannot be further along in its workflow than its dependencies. For example, if a topic references images, the topic cannot move to a Done status before all related images also move to a Done status. A topic cannot move to a Done status if it references unfinished conrefs that are still have a Work status.