Approvals before release
This page is for shows where someone must sign off an episode before listeners get it: an editor in chief, a legal
review for a sensitive interview, a sponsor check. Exponential does this with the Approve workflow event
(kernel/classes/workflowtypes/event/ezapprove/), set up by an administrator.
Contents
- How approval works
- Setting it up for a show
- Approval and a release date together
- What producers and approvers do
- What approval does not cover
- Lighter alternatives
How approval works
When a producer presses Send for publishing, the workflow on the trigger "before publishing content" runs. The Approve event holds the version as pending until an approver accepts it; then it is published. If the approver denies it, it becomes a draft for the author again. The workflow cronjob must run for this to work (Workflows).
Setting it up for a show
The event's fields, from the workflows guide:
| Field | For a show |
|---|---|
| Affected sections | the section your show's content is in; give shows their own section if only they need approval |
| Affected languages | usually all |
| Affected versions | All versions to review every change, or Publishing new object to review only new episodes |
| Users who approve content, Groups who approve content | the editor in chief, or a group of reviewers |
| Excluded user groups | people who may publish without review |
An approver never needs to approve their own content: when the publishing user is one of the approvers, the event lets the version through.
Approval and a release date together
A trigger takes one workflow (Workflows). To have both an approval and a scheduled release, put both events into one workflow, in the order you want:
- Approve: the episode waits for the approver.
- Wait until date: after approval, it waits for its release date (Scheduling a release).
In this order, an episode approved after its release date goes out at the next cron run. To run separate workflows, the guide describes the Multiplexer event.
What producers and approvers do
Producer
- Finish the episode and press Send for publishing.
- The version is in My pending items (My pending items).
- If it is denied, the version is a draft for you again, with the approver's comment. Edit it and send it again.
Approver
- Open My account > Collaboration (or My pending items): the approval requests are listed there.
- Open the request, look at the preview, listen to the audio and read the notes.
- Press Approve, or Deny with a comment for the author.
After an approval, the episode is published at the next run of the workflow cronjob (Workflows).
The customer section describes a daily routine for approvers (Approvals and review).
What approval does not cover
- Changes outside content. The feed's channel fields, the artwork address and layouts are not content versions;
approval does not hold them. Limit who may edit RSS exports instead (the
rss/editpolicy). - Embedded players. An approved page with an External video block shows what the service serves at the time.
- Hiding and removing. These are not publishing; the Approve event does not stop them.
Lighter alternatives
| Need | Alternative |
|---|---|
| A second pair of eyes, no hard gate | the producer stores the draft and asks a colleague to review it before publishing |
| Visible stages without blocking | object states such as ready for review (Production stages with object states) |
| Only some people may change the show at all | roles that limit content/create and content/edit to the show's subtree or section for its team (Roles and policies) |
Related pages
- Approvals and review
- Workflows
- A release calendar
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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