Workflow

This article covers an overview of the Workflow settings. This can only be accessed via the project-level menu.

The Workflow settings page is where you can configure a project's workflow statuses. It's important to note that every project in your account has its own independent workflow settings.

This page is divided into two sections. The first section is the workflow settings itself and the second section is the grading criteria settings.

Workflow settings

Always remember that every project has its own workflow settings so if you've created a custom workflow status in one project, it won't appear in a different one.

By default, we have four workflow statuses: draft, editorial review, approved for publishing, and completed.

How to Edit a Workflow Status

You can edit a workflow status by clicking its corresponding pencil icon.

This will change the UI to enable you to make changes to it, as seen below.

You can change a status's name, description, select responsible roles, set an auto due date, or make it read-only. You can also change its color by clicking the circle next to its name.

Read-only Workflow

When an item is under a read-only workflow status, no one will be able to edit its content. The role assigned to this status will still be able to approve or reject the item as well as provide feedback after approval.

In addition, other users that are assigned to the other workflow statuses of the item will still be able to add, edit, or remove (their own) comments.

How to Create a New Workflow Status

To create a new workflow status, click the New workflow status button located underneath the list of your current workflow statuses.

Clicking this adds a new empty field that will let you add and configure your custom workflow status.

You can set (from left to right) the name, description, responsible role, auto due date, and read-only options.

Next to the status name, you'll see, by default, a grey circle. This is the workflow status' color code. You can change this by clicking the circle and selecting a color through the color picker. Right now, you can only select from a set of predefined colors.

Additional Settings

The additional settings provide you more options over your items whenever they reach certain workflow status or if you have a WordPress site connected to the project.

The first option only works when a WordPress site is connected to the project. When this is enabled, the "Publish to WP" option automatically sets an item's status to Completed (by default), or to whatever the name of your final workflow status is, regardless of the item's current status.

For example, if an item is under Editorial review and a user with enough permissions published the item to WordPress, the item's status will instantly be set to Completed.

The second option allows you to disable asking reviewers to leave written feedback to the writer whenever they approve an item. More information about grading and feedback is covered in the next section.

Grading Criteria

The grading criteria allow your reviewers to rate items after approving them. By default, there are three grading criteria, all of which are enabled for the Editorial review workflow status. That means users assigned under Editorial review status will be asked to leave a rating for each defined category after approving an item.

Using the above as an example, when a user assigned to the editorial review status finishes reviewing the item and clicks the approve button, a dialog box will appear, prompting them to grade it based on the categories defined on the workflow page. The dialog box's appearance is shown below.

You may have noticed that you can drag and drop the grading criterion using the hamburger icon to rearrange them in the workflow settings page. Doing so will also change the order of their appearance in the feedback dialog box.

How to Edit a Grading Criterion

Editing a grading criterion is similar to editing a workflow status. To do so, click the criterion's corresponding edit button and the UI will change to allow you to make changes.

From left to right: you can modify the criterion's name, description, and associated workflow status.

How to Create a New Grading Criterion

To create a new grading criterion, click the New grading criterion button located below the list of your grading criteria. A new empty field will appear that will let you create your new grading criterion.

Enter your new criterion's name and description and then assign it to a workflow status. Finally, click the Save button and your new criterion will instantly be active.

Learn about roles next so you can assign the correct roles to the correct workflow statuses and grading criteria.