In the previous chapter, we looked into the Web Author and focused on authoring content for a CMS-based Web site. When the CMS pages have been saved, they are persisted to the CMS content repository. However, the saved pages aren't necessarily made immediately available on the live Web site; they may only be visible in Edit mode. Most Web sites require that the pages go through an approval process. In order for the saved pages to be published on the live site, they need to be reviewed and approved for publishing. CMS provides a three-step publishing process (Figure 6-1), as follows:
Figure 6-1. CMS publishing workflow
NOTE: It is worth mentioning that the steps in the publishing workflow are optional; you don't have to implement the full workflow if you don't need it. Later in this chapter, we will discuss how to reduce the workflow. There are three formal roles defined within CMS for the business users who participate in the publishing process, as follows:
NOTE: When a moderator acts as an author, they are no different from any other author: All content they create or change must be approved by the editor. Users are assigned their roles by a CMS administrator before they log on for the first time. A user can have more than one role, depending on how the Web site is set up. For example, a user can be an author in one channel and an editor in another channel. CMS user rights are defined by the role, or combination of roles, assigned to the user.
NOTE: Setting up CMS user rights will be discussed in detail in Chapter 17. Editors and moderators use the Web Author to approve or decline the pages. Depending on the user's rights, different options are available in the Web Author console. In this chapter, we will concentrate on the CMS publishing workflow. We will begin with the standard three-step publishing process and will walk through all the steps, starting with submitting a page. We will then look into page content approval by the editor and, finally, the moderator's approval and publishing. Later in the chapter, we will discuss the reduced workflow and auto-approval. |