Implementing Web Content Workflow

Web content has three primary workflow options that can be used alone or in concert to control the publication of materials to your Web site. These three options are content approval, staging of content, and using variations to replicate and assign parallel versions of content.

Using the approval workflow

Content publication may be controlled by content approval, a permission granted to members of the Approvers site group. These users control the publication of authored content. Document drafts are in the Pending State while they await content approval; upon approval content becomes available for viewing. Owners of document libraries may enable content approval for a document library and alternately assign approval workflows to the library to expedite the process of approval. You should set content approval so that all users can publish content, but the content should be reviewed by a limited audience for changes and approval before becoming widely available.

There are different versioning settings that determine the document submission process:

• None: When versioning has been disabled, changes saved cause the document state to become Pending. The previous version of the document is retained until the content is approved, and the content is still accessible to members of the reader site group. Upon approval, earlier versions are discarded and the new version of the document becomes available to readers. This is true of documents which are uploaded to the document library as well.

• Major versions only: A document saved with this setting enabled becomes Pending, and users with read permissions can view the previous major version of the document. After the changes to the document are approved, a new major version of the document is created and the previous version is saved to the document’s history list.

  Note

  If major versioning has been enabled, when a new document is uploaded to the document library it is added to the library in the Pending state. It is unavailable to users with read permissions until it has been approved as a major version.

  
  

• Major and minor versions: With major and minor versioning enabled, changes to a document are saved, and the author has the choice of saving a new minor version of the document as a draft or creating a new major version, both of which change the document’s state to Pending. Upon approval, a new major version of the document is created and made available to site users with read permissions. Both major and minor versions of documents are kept in a document’s history list in major and minor versioning.

With major and minor versioning enabled, when a new document is uploaded to the document library it may be added to the library in the Draft state as version 0.1, or approval may be immediately requested which changes the document’s state to Pending.

Approval workflows are processes by which a document or item is sent to the appropriate group for review and approval. This lends efficiency to the business process of approval by managing and tracking all the human tasks which comprise the process, and then providing a record of the process upon completion.

You may create an approval workflow immediately from a document or item in a list or library if workflows are enabled for that library. The workflow process begins with the selection of the appropriate workflow. Then you define the workflow with a form which itemizes the content approvers, due dates, and any additional conditions or elements relevant to the approval process.

The approval workflow is included with SharePoint and can be configured using a Web browser. To enable an approval workflow for a publishing pages library, follow these steps:

1.	On the site that stores your page library, click View All Site Content from the Quick Launch navigation.
2.	Choose the Pages library.
3.	From the Settings menu on the top navigation bar, choose Document Library Settings.
4.	Click Versioning settings, and then ensure that the Require content approval for submitted items radio button is set to Yes.
5.	Click OK.
6.	In the Permissions and Management category, select Workflow settings.
7.	Select the Approval workflow template from the Workflow field.
8.	Give the new workflow a name to identify it to site users.
9.	In the Task List field, choose the Workflow Tasks list as shown in Figure 11.13. Figure 11.13. Selecting a task list to track workflow items [View full size image] A workflow task list is created when publishing features are enabled on the site collection to track the workflow process, although any task list previously created for the site collection appears on the drop-down menu. You may also opt to create a new task list to track the workflow.
10.	Select Workflow History (new) from the History List field.
11.	Choose from among the Start Options available. Choose the options that are applicable for the task at hand, although selection of these items in conjunction with conflicting conditions causes the previous item to uncheck to ensure the workflow process will be able to run. Allow this workflow to be manually started by an authenticated user with Edit Items Permissions: Users with permissions to edit must manually initiate the work-flow process. Alternatively, you can set the workflow to Require Manage Lists Permissions to start the workflow: users must have permissions to manage lists in order to fire the workflow manually. Selecting this supercedes the previous option. Start this workflow to approve publishing a major version of an item: The work-flow is automatically started when a major version of the document has been submitted for approval. Start this workflow when a new item is created: Automatic initiation of the work-flow when a new item is created. Start this workflow when an item is changed: Automatic firing of the workflow process when a document has been revised. For the purposes of this example, choose Allow this workflow to be manually started by an authenticated user with Edit Items Permissions.
12.	Click Next.
13.	On the Customize Workflow page, define how tasks will be assigned to the approvers. Choose from the following options. All participants simultaneously (parallel): Tasks are assigned to all users. One participant at a time (serial): Tasks are assigned to approvers in order. You can also specify whether users may reassign tasks or request a change by checking the required box. Choose the latter option, One participant at a time (serial), for this example.
14.	In the Default Workflow Start Values section specify the users or groups who require approval. Enter your alias for this example.
15.	Specify the following: Assign a single task to each group entered (Do not expand groups): Tasks will be assigned to members of the site group in charge of approval. Allow changes to the participant list when this workflow is started: Allows the workflow initiator to change participants or add them as necessary.
16.	If you opted to assign the workflow tasks to the approvers in parallel, you may choose the due date for the content approval process. If you chose instead to delegate the workflow tasks to the approvers serially, you may now designate how many days are allowed for the users to complete the task. In serial approval, you may also cc additional users to notify them of the task at hand.
17.	In the Complete the Workflow section, you may choose to end the workflow upon completion of a set number of tasks if the tasks were assigned in parallel to a designated site group, as shown in Figure 11.14. In either case you may choose to cancel the workflow if it is changed or rejected. Figure 11.14. Completing the approval workflow [View full size image]
18.	For Post-completion Workflow Activities select the Update the approval status (use this workflow to control content approval) check box if you want to have the content published upon approval.
19.	Click OK.

If you want to test your example workflow, return to the Pages library and create a new page. You should receive an e-mail notification that provides a link to the item in the Workflow Tasks list.

Deploying content between servers

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows site administrators the ability to deploy content across multiple servers, from one site collection to another. This functionality is typically used for staging content so that users modify only the staged content, and published content is modified only via the content deployment process.

The source site collection and the target site collection for the content may be in the same farm or in different farms. This functionality is managed by creating and using paths and jobs from the Central Administration site on the server farm. The content deployment path defines the relationship between the two site collections for deployment.

When paths from the source site collection and the target site collection have been designated, you then create a job to deploy the content.

Jobs determine the specific content to be deployed from the source to the target and the schedule upon which the deployment occurs.

Paths and jobs are created from the SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration site.

1.	From Central Administration, navigate to the Operations page.
2.	In the Content Deployment section, click Content deployment paths and jobs.
3.	On the Manage Content Deployment Paths and Jobs page, click New Path.
4.	In the Name and Description section, enter a name and a meaningful description for the new path. This will aid users in employing the new path to create jobs.
5.	In the Source Web Application and Site Collection section, select the Web application and site collection that contains the content you want to deploy.
6.	Enter the URL to the Destination Central Administration server in the Destination Central Administration Web Application section.
7.	You must supply Authentication Information in order to access the destination Central Administration web site. Enter the means of authentication, the username, and the password in the required fields and click Connect.
8.	Upon successful connection, enter the destination Web application and site collection where you would like to deploy the content, as shown in Figure 11.15. Figure 11.15. Entering the destination site collection for your content deployment [View full size image]
9.	If you want the usernames associated with the content to be visible on the destination site collection, check the corresponding box in the User Names section.
10.	Determine the security information to be associated with the content in the Security Information section. Select from the following: None: No security information associated with content is deployed with the content. All: All the security information associated with the content is deployed with the content. Role Definitions Only: Role definitions (collections of permissions) are deployed with the content. Users and groups, including those associated with the role definitions, are not deployed with the content.
11.	Click OK.

Now you will create a content deployment job using the new path.

1.	On the Manage Content Deployment Paths and Jobs page, click New Job, as shown in Figure 11.16. Figure 11.16. Create a new job for content deployment [View full size image]
2.	In the Name and Description section, give the content deployment job a meaningful name.
3.	In the Description box, enter a description for the content deployment job if desired.
4.	In the Path section, select the content deployment path on the Select a content deployment path menu.
5.	In the Scope section, select one of the following: Entire site collection: Includes all sites in the site collection in the deployment. Specific sites within the site collection: Specify sites within the site collection in the deployment. If you select this option, click Select sites to select the sites to include in the deployment.
6.	In the Frequency section, you may clear the Run this job on the following schedule check box if you want to run the job manually. Optionally, select the Run this job on the following schedule check box to specify a schedule.
7.	In the Deployment Options section, select one of the following: Deploy only new, changed, or deleted content: Deploys content that is new or content that has been changed or deleted. Deploy all content, including content that has been deployed before: Select this option to deploy all content.
8.	Select the Send e-mail when the content deployment job succeeds check box in the Notification section if you want to receive e-mail upon successful completion of the content deployment job.
9.	To receive e-mail notification when the content deployment job fails, check the Send e-mail if the content deployment job fails box.
10.	If you select either of these options, enter an e-mail address in the Type e-mail addresses box.
11.	Click OK.

Using site variations and language translations

Your organization may require Web sites to provide content specific to different cultures, markets, or geographic locales. Implementing distinctive sites of this nature can prove challenging to deploy and maintain. To simplify the architecture and administrative processes, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 introduces site variations.

Site variations are a new feature in Office SharePoint Server 2007 that makes content available to targeted audiences across different sites by copying and, if necessary, tailoring content from the source variation site to each target variation site.

By default, variation site redirection is based on the language setting of the browser from which the user is visiting the site. For example, if the user’s default browser language is Spanish, the user is redirected to the corresponding Spanish variation site.

Site variations are defined through the creation of variation labels per each required variation. Variation labels are identifiers that name and configure a target variation site. You create a source variation label that denotes the site supplying the bulk of the site content. The complementary variation labels represent the destination site where the copied content is required.

The Create Hierarchy command creates the variation sites from these labels, and is accessed from the Variation labels page from the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site administration pages.

Each site collection has a unique set of variation labels that may be defined. Variation sites may be initiated anywhere in the site hierarchy because the source variation and the target variation sites are always created as subsites of the variations home site. Upon arrival at the home site, users are redirected to the applicable variation site.

You must configure variation settings for your publishing sites or pages to enable the variation features. Variations for all sites in a site collection are configured at the top-level site administration. Three elements are involved in configuring variation site support for your publishing sites or pages.

• Variations: These define the parameters of the site variations you want to apply to your site variation.

• Variation Labels: These determine the locale and create the site variation hierarchy.

• Optional: Translatable Column Settings: Defines any Site columns that may need to be translated for variations.

To configure site variations, follow these steps:

1.	From the top-level site of a site collection, click Site Actions in the top-right corner.
2.	Choose Modify All Site Settings from the Site Settings menu.
3.	Under the Site Collection Administration group, choose Variations.
4.	In the Variation Home section, enter the location where the source and the target variations will be created, as shown in Figure 11.17. Figure 11.17. Configuring variations for your site collection [View full size image] Depending on the needs of your organization, you may not want to translate the entire site collection. Browse to the section of the site you want to set as the common location for both the source and target variations.
5.	In the Automatic Creation section, choose one of these options: Automatically create site and page variations to automatically create a copy of all variations. Do not automatically create site and page variations to grant the owner of a site or page the means to decide when a site or page is created.
6.	In the Recreate Deleted Target Page section, select one of the following: Recreate a new target page when the source page is republished should you want a new target page to be created when the source page is republished. Do not recreate a new target page when the source page is republished if you don’t want a new target page to be created when the source page is republished. This field determines which actions will be taken when a variation page is deleted and its variation source is updated.
7.	Check the Send e-mail notification to owners when a new site or page is created or a page is updated by the variation system box from the Notification section. This sends an e-mail notification that a new subsite or page of a target site is created, or when a target page is updated with revisions from the source variation to the site owner.
8.	In the Resources section, decide if it is necessary for a new page variation to use the same resources as the source page, or if the variation should use the resource copies which are created in the new page variation’s location. If this is the case, select one of the following tasks: Reference existing resources to use existing resources. Copy resources to copy the resources.
9.	Click OK.

To configure site variation labels, follow these steps:

1.	From the top-level site of a site collection, click Site Actions in the top-right corner.
2.	Choose Modify All Site Settings from the Site Settings menu.
3.	On the Site Settings page, under the Site Collection Administration group, choose Variation labels.
4.	On the Variation labels page, click New Label.
5.	From the Label and Description section, type a descriptive name in the Label Name field. The name you enter will become the URL string.
6.	Enter an optional description to help users understand the label’s purpose.
7.	Choose a user-friendly name in the Display Name field. These are typically localized versions of a label. The display name will appear in the Site Management Tool hierarchy.
8.	Select the locale for the variation and enter it in the Locale field. This denotes formatting for elements such as date, time, and currency.
9.	If Language Packs have been installed on the server, check the Language box to select a language to provision the variation label’s site.
10.	In the Hierarchy Creation section, select the portion of the source hierarchy that you would like to copy. Select one of the following: Publishing Sites and All Pages: This creates a hierarchy of publishing sites and all pages. Publishing Sites only: This creates a hierarchy of publishing sites only. Root Site only: Creates a hierarchy at the root. Note This setting cannot be changed upon creation of a site variation hierarchy. In order to modify these settings the user must delete the variation label from the list and create a new label prior to creating a site variation hierarchy.
11.	You are returned to the Variation Labels page; click Create Hierarchies to create the site variation. A drop-down menu appears in the Global Navigation button for the source site, defining the different language variations available for users requiring native language support, as shown in Figure 11.18. Figure 11.18. Global navigation changes made by variation [View full size image]