Preconfigured workflows_user

The censhare standard workspace for dedicated solutions contains predefined workflow states and workflows that represent the production cycle of product publications, multimedia campaigns, and other projects. The workflow steps are mapped to the standard workflow states. The workflows can be extended, simplified, or adjusted, if necessary.

User roles

Users
Solution developers

Context

The workflows of the censhare Standard solutions are aligned with the governance model and ready-to-use for production environments like Product information management or Publication management.

Introduction

The production cycles of your product information or publications require that data is updated, reviewed and approved periodically. Workflows help you to plan, assign and track the work continuously in your system. Workflow states can also be used in the quality management of censhare. Quality management ensures that only assets that have been approved are used for production.

Standard workflows

The censhare dedicated solutions provide a set of six workflow states to be used system-wide for the production cycle of your assets.

Workflow states represent a generic sequence. They cannot be used directly in an asset. Instead, assets use specific Workflows and Workflow steps. Workflows derive from the Workflow states sequence. They are custom-built and meet the requirements and processes of a department, of a production domain or of an asset type.

Each workflow step of a workflow is mapped to a workflow state. Thus, you can use different workflows in your system that conform to the standard workflow states. This also ensures that assets keep their workflow state when they are moved between domains that use different workflows. Workflows can leave out states, or map multiple steps to the same workflow state, if necessary.

For example, in the Product domain, you may need a multi-step approval. The approval steps Internal approval, Website approval, Catalog approval are all mapped to the workflow state In approval. In the Common resources domain, you may not need a workflow step that is mapped to the workflow state Public, because the templates stored in this domain are not publishable assets.

Workflow states

The following workflow diagram shows the states and transitions:

Generic workflow chart

The six workflow states are related to an individual asset, to multiple assets, or to an asset structure for publication or data aggregation. The following table shows tasks that are related to each step:

Workflow state	Description
In planning	Plan for necessary tasks, budget, resources to carry out this production cycle.
In production	Create assets, import files or data from external sources that are required for the production cycle. Edit, optimize and enrich the data. This can be a single-step process for an individual asset, or a multi-step process for asset structures, publications, data aggregations.
Complete	Person in charge (in censhare called Workflow target) finished their work.
In Approval	Review process. This can be a single-step or multi-step process. If approved, the state moves to Public. If rejected, the state moves to Error.
Error	If necessary, adjust data, or add/delete content. Use this state also to mark outdated assets.
Public	Publish or export the assets or aggregated data.

Standard workflows

Based on the workflow steps, the censhare dedicated solutions contain three workflows:

Product - use for the production lifecycle of Products, Product items, Product families, and classifications.
Media - use for the production lifecycle of images, videos, etc.
Content - use for the production lifecycle of text content.

You can use this framework as is, or customize the standard workflows.

Custom workflows

Workflows vary widely in different organization and production units. You can adjust or replicate the standard workflows in the censhare Admin Client, in the Master data/Workflows table:

In the censhare Admin Client, activate the Admin mode.
Double-click the workflow that you want to edit in the Master data/Workflows table.
If you wish, change the Name and the Description for each language.
Select the Domain and 2nd domain for which the workflow is available. For example, select the Product domain for the Product workflow, the Media domain for the Media workflow, and the Content domain for the Content workflow.
If you wish, change the Default step. The standard step is Plan. For more information, see the Workflow steps section below.
The Default asset type is the corresponding asset type. You can specify a sub-type or change the default type.

Tip: If you need additional workflows, create a new entry in the Master data/Workflow table and follow the steps above.

Workflow steps

The workflows comprise the same steps Plan ► Enrich ► Approve ► Ready to use ► Public. The steps are mapped to the respective workflow states In planning / In production / In approval / Complete / Published (The Error state is not part of the workflow itself).

You can add, edit, or remove workflow steps according to the processes in your organization. If you add workflow steps, they must be mapped to one of the standard workflow states:

Note: For the following steps, activate the Admin mode in the censhare Admin Client.

Edit workflow steps

Important: The completion state of standard workflow steps is set to 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%. For production systems with task management, adjust these values to 100%.

To edit a Workflow step, double-click the entry in the Workflow steps area of the Workflow configuration dialog.
If you wish, enter a new Name and Description for each language.
If you wish, change the Sorting of the step.
Adjust the Completion state percentage. The completion state is used to monitor and show the progress. It is not intended to track times and efforts. The standard steps use increments of ten percent. Choose an appropriate value.
In the State field, select the Workflow state mapping of the step. Several workflow steps can be mapped to the same Workflow state.
The fields Default target, Checked out step and Trigger event are optional. Configure these steps for automatic actions associated with the workflow step.
To save the workflow step, click OK.
To save the workflow, click OK again.

Add workflow steps

To add a new Workflow step, click in the Workflow steps area of the Workflow configuration dialog.
Enter an ID. The ID must be unique within a workflow. The standard steps use increments of one hundred. Choose an ID between the previous step and the following step.

The deployment of workflow definitions with workflow steps and workflow states in a masterdata.xml file can overwrite already existing workflow definitions when deployed to another system!
Workflows, workflow steps and workflow states are identified by their IDs. These IDs are numbers that are manually created. The IDs must be unique: Workflow IDs must be unique within all workflow IDs. Workflow state IDs must be unique within all workflow state IDs. Workflow step IDs must be unique within their workflow definition.
The censhare dedicated solutions also provide a set of workflows with workflow steps and workflow states. They use the reserved range from 900.000 to 1.000.000 for workflow IDs and workflow states. Do not use this range for custom workflow IDs or workflow state IDs! They can be overwritten if the censhare dedicated workflows/workflow states are installed or updated!
If a workflow ID in a masterdata.xml file is also used by a workflow in the censhare dedicated solutions, this definition is changed by the masterdata.xml file. If workflow step ID within this workflow definition also is the same, this definition is changed, too. If a workflow state ID in a masterdata.xml file is also used by a standard workflow state definition, this definition is changed by the masterdata.xml file.
Enter a Name and Description for each language.
In the Sorting field, enter an integer to sort the steps in the desired order (for example, in drop-down menus). The standard steps use increments of ten. Choose a sorting between the previous step and the following step.
Enter a Completion state percentage. The completion state is used to monitor and show the progress. It is not intended to track times and efforts. The standard steps use increments of ten percent. Choose an appropriate value.
In the State field, select the Workflow state mapping of the step. Several workflow steps can be mapped to the same Workflow state.
The fields Default target, Checked out step and Trigger event are optional. Configure these steps for automatic actions associated with the workflow step.
To save the workflow step, click OK.
To save the workflow, click OK again.

Remove workflow steps

You can remove steps if they are not required for a workflow. Removing a workflow step also removes the mapping of this step to a workflow state. Consequently, the respective workflow state is skipped in the workflow.

To remove a Workflow step:

Select the workflow step to remove in the Workflow steps area of the Workflow configuration dialog.
Click
in the toolbar of the Workflow steps area.
To save the workflow, click OK.

Result

Customized, production-ready workflows for your censhare PIM solution.