Document status
Assigning a status is a way of associating a group member with a document, a task and a date. The primary objective of the document status is to formalize lifecycle stages such as creation, review and release. Using the collaboration and reporting tools of PageSeeder, the document status can eliminate much of the overheads and inaccuracies associated with managing document lifecycles using spreadsheets and email.
Configuration
The document status is configured as part of the group or project configuration. It depends on the editorial process for documents. See below for an explanation on PageSeeder’s default configuration.
Status and roles
The status that a member can set on a document is based on their role within a group. Each role can be associated with a list of document statuses that appear as an option on the workflow step when editing the workflow.
Only the Approver is able to set any document status.
| Role | Permissions and workflow options |
|---|---|
| Approver | Full editorial control – can manage documents and workflows |
| Manager | Limited editorial control – can manage documents and workflows |
| Contributor | Limited editorial control – can edit documents and only start or end work on a document |
| Reviewer | No editorial control – can only comment on documents and start or end work on a document |
When configuring document status, start with the ‘Approver’ role and remove statuses that other roles are not allowed to set.
Status order
The document status has a natural order; all values must be entered in the same order and it should reflect the order in which the document status is naturally changed.
For example, if the document status is to start with ‘Initiated’, then naturally progress to ‘In Progress’ before being set to ‘Complete’, the status should be entered in the following order:
- Initiated
- In Progress
- Complete
PageSeeder defaults
The default document statuses in PageSeeder are based on Workflow Reference Model but have been adapted to document management and PageSeeder’s capabilities.
Status and roles
| Initiated | In Progress | Complete | Approved | Suspended | Terminated | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approver | ||||||
| Manager | ||||||
| Contributor | ||||||
| Reviewer |
State diagram
Status description
Initiated
The workflow for the document has been initiated, but no activities have been started on the document. This status is considered active.
This state is usually the initial state when the editorial process requires managers and approvers to allocate work for the document.
The equivalent task status is ‘Open’.
In Progress
Activities on this document are in progress. This usually means that the document content is still being actively worked on. Additional labels can be used to describe the nature of the activities being performed. This status is considered active.
This might be the initial state in simple editorial workflows.
The equivalent task status is ‘Open’.
Complete
The document is considered complete. Any internal post-completion operations, such as the final editorial review before approval, should be conducted. This status is considered active.
This might be the final state in simple editorial workflows.
The equivalent task status is ‘Resolved’.
Approved
An “Approver” has checked that the document is ready and that there are no longer any outstanding activities.
This can be used to mark the document as ready for publishing. This is a final state in the document workflow. The equivalent task status is ‘Closed’
Suspended
The workflow is quiescent and no activities are started until the process has returned to the ‘In progress’ state.
This state might be used in large editorial teams when a document cannot be considered complete and nobody actively works on this document.
Terminated
Work on the document has been stopped before its normal completion.
This is a final state in the document workflow. The equivalent task status is ‘Closed’.
Notification
Email notification is controlled by setting the Notify option to ‘silent’, ‘normal’ or ‘announce’. This defaults to ‘silent’ for workflows.
However, the following global property also determines if an email notification is sent when creating workflows in bulk:
maxWorkflowNotifications– The maximum number of notifications when adding bulk workflows by upload, folder or search (if more than this, then none are sent).