Managing Document Workflow


For some types of documents, the author is not allowed to publish the document by herself. If this is the case, you must configure the document library to activate Content Approval. The effect is that every added or modified document is hidden until a user with Manage Lists rights approves it. Even if the author has this right, the document must be approved in a separate step.

Try It Out Activate Content Approval in a Document Library

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  1. Log on as an administrator for the team site where the document library is stored.

  2. Open the document library.

  3. Open the menu Settings image from book Document Library Settings.

  4. Click on Versioning settings

  5. Select Yes for the option Require content approval for submitted items?

  6. Click OK to save and close the page.

  7. Click on the document library name in the breadcrumb trail near the top of the page to open the library.

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The approval process is now activated. Log on as a user who is a member of the SharePoint Members group. This group does not have the Approve permission, so every update from these members will need to be approved by a user with this right (for example, the Owners group, and the site administrator).

Important 

Note that even if a user with Approve permission adds or modifies a document, it must still be approved. This was not the case in SharePoint 2003.

Try It Out Test the Content Approval Process

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  1. Log on as a member of the SharePoint group Members.

  2. Update any existing document. Note that the document is now listed as "Draft" in the column Approved Status. This column was automatically added to the document view when you activated the Content Approval feature. You can specify if the draft version will be visible to everyone or not:

    1. Click Settings image from book Document Library Settings on the library.

    2. Click Versioning Settings. In the section Who should see draft items in this document library?, you can choose between three options; if you choose Any user who can read items, then every user with at least Read permission can see and open documents with the pending approval status.

  3. The next step in this example is to publish the document. This will change the document's status from "Draft" to "Pending." Open the quick menu for the same document, then select "Publish a major version." You have the option to enter a comment, then click OK.

  4. A user with the Approve permission must now check the modification. When the content approval process is activated for a document library, you will find that it gains two new document views: Approve/Reject Items and My Submissions. The first of these two views is not available unless you have Approval permission; the second view will list all documents that you have submitted to this document library and show their status. When a user with the Approve permission uses the view Approve/Reject Items, he or she will see all documents awaiting approval or that have been denied approval (see Figure 10-22). Make sure to select the view Approve/Reject Items before you continue with the next step.

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    Figure 10-22

  5. Before you approve or reject the modification, you should view the document. Open the document in a normal way, and read both its content and its column settings. To approve or reject it, use the quick menu for the document and select Approve/reject. This will open a web form where you choose to approve or reject the document; you can also enter a description that will be stored along with the document.

Important 

When the document is approved, it will be public; if it is rejected, the document continues to be hidden. SharePoint 2007 will not inform the author about the result of the approval process, but you can create a workflow that does this.

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To summarize this process: The content approval process is very handy for some types of documents where a specific user, such as a manager, must approve a document before it goes public. The problem with this process in SharePoint 2007 is that, by default, neither the user who must approve or reject the modification nor the author receives an e-mail saying what is going on! Luckily, this is easily addressed by adding a workflow process to the document library, as shown in the following Try It Out.

Try It Out Add an Approval Workflow

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  1. Log on as a site administrator.

  2. Click on the document library to which you want to add the workflow.

  3. Click the menu Settings image from book Document Library Settings.

  4. Click Workflow settings.

  5. If this is a MOSS installation, you will find a ready-made workflow named Approval. If you are running WSS 3.0 alone, then you must first create a workflow, using either SharePoint Designer, or Visual Studio .NET. In this example, we assume the Approval workflow exists, so the next step is to configure it:

    1. Select the Approval workflow.

    2. Type a unique name for the workflow: Approving Docs.

    3. Select a task list: Tasks. This list will keep track of approval tasks and who they are assigned to.

    4. Select a history list: Workflow History (new). This list will log all actions related to the workflow. This will make it possible for you to later see who approved or rejected a specific document.

    5. Check Start this workflow when a new item is created, and Start this workflow when an item is changed. This will ensure that both newly created documents and modified documents in the document library will trigger the approval workflow process.

    6. Click Next. A new web form opens where you will define settings for the approval workflow. In this example, assume that the user Filobit\Administrator will be the sole approver.

    7. In the Approvers field, enter Filobit\administrator, and click the Check Names button to perform the name completion. Verify that the name is underlined, which indicates that the name has been identified. If not, check your spelling.

    8. In the Type a message to include with your request field, enter: Dear Admin, please approve this document.

    9. In the Give each person the following amount of time to finish their task (serial) field, set the duration to 2 Days.

    10. Check the Update the approval status (use this workflow to control content approval) option.

    11. Click OK.

  6. On the next page, you will see the name of your workflow process listed, that is Approving Docs. The process is now active.

  7. Test the workflow:

    1. Let a user with the Contributor permission level add or update a document in the document library.

    2. Verify that the document is listed as Pending in the Approval Status column and that the new column Approving Docs is listed as In Progress for the document.

    3. Then open the administrator's Outlook program. Wait for an e-mail that tells you to approve this modified document; there is a link to open the document, and also to approve or reject the document. Approve the document now.

    4. Open Anna's Outlook mailbox. You will find two messages; one that states that the workflow process has started and one that informs Anna about the outcome, that the document was approved by the administrator in this example.

    5. In the document library, verify that the document now is approved and that the workflow Approving Docs is completed.

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Beginning SharePoint 2007 Administration. Windows SharePoint Services 3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Software Testing Fundamentals: Methods and Metrics
ISBN: 047143020X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 119

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