Update Activities and Transitions for a topic workflow template

Inspire provides you with a template for the process of developing content. If you want a workflow that contains a different tasks,the tasks in a different order, different transitions between activities or a workflow that assigns work to different workgroups, you can update the workflow template. The template is used to create a workflow and tell Inspire how to automate the workflow you need.

You must have permission to work with workflow templates.

  • By default, only users with the following permissions can create project workflows and assignments:
    • Administrator permissions
    • Access to the Project Module with the Create permission
  • Even if you don't have these permissions, you can be granted a special permission to create workflows and project assignments after a project is created.

Inspire provides a Topic template to automate the tasks you need to create, review, and publish content. You can customize the template in an editor to fit your business processes.

In the workflow editor, you specify the Activity that needs to be done, such as writing content, getting a review, or publishing a deliverable.

The template is also the place where you define the Transitions for moving the workflow to the next step, such as notifying production that approved files are ready to publish.

You use transitions to identify what should happen when a workflow Activity is completed. For example, after the a technical review, you can create a transition that specifies the files should go to an editor for review. If there is also an Action that needs to be done, such as Take a snapshot, you can create the Action and add it to the Transition.

Tips and tricks

To update activities and transitions in a review workflow template:

  1. Click Components.
  2. In the Folders pane, select Workflows.
  3. In the Components pane, double-click Topic Workflow.
  4. Optionally, to enlarge the display size of the template in the workflow editor, go to the top toolbar and do any of the following:

    • To enlarge the display, click Zoom In.
    • To reduce the display, click Zoom Out.
    • To return to the default display size, click Zoom Default.
    If your screen is minimized, you can find these options under the More menu.

  5. To update the options you can select for an Activity:
    1. In the activity's title bar, select Edit.

      Results: The Update Activity screen opens.

    2. In Name, enter a title that describes what is being done at this step of content development.
    3. In Status, you track the progress of a content development Activity. By default, Inspire includes the following statuses: Writing, Reviewing, and Publishing. If you want to customize this list, follow the steps in:
    4. In Project Activity, you must associate the workflow activity with a category that defines the work.
      • By default, Inspire includes the following categories for Project Activity: Approve Content, Edit Content, Publish Content, Review Content, Review Image, and Write Content.

      • Project Activity is a required field and cannot be left blank. Although this field is not marked with a red asterisks, and you can create a new Activity without selecting a Project Activity, if you leave it blank, the Save and Submit options are not available until you correct the errors in the workflow template.

        • If there is an error in the configuration of the Activity, you see the Activity name in red.

          You must correct any errors before you can Save or Submit the workflow template.

      • If you want to customize this list, follow the steps in: Manage project activity configurations.
    5. Optionally, if you want this to be the first activity and no activities will come before it in the workflow, select Initial.
    6. Optionally, if you want this to be the final activity and no activities will follow in the workflow, select Final.
    7. Optionally, you can set a Duration for this activity in minutes.

      Important notes:

      • In the templates Inspire provides, by default the user is given a Duration of 0 minutes to complete the activity, so you will need to set your own duration.
      • You set the time in minutes from 0 to 525600 which is 1 year.
      • After the Duration passes, if the activity is not complete, it is marked as Overdue and notifications may be sent depending on a user's notification preferences.
    8. Optionally, in Claimable, you can identify this activity as a project assignment that isn't assigned to one person initially. Instead the user creating the workflow provides a list of users who can accept the assignment.

      If you set an Activity to Claimable, when a user creates a workflow using this template:

      1. The user who creates project assignment selects the Claimable options, then Inspire sets the activity to a State of Ready To Claim.
      2. The user who creates workflow can select from the list of participants who can possibly accept the work. This user list is taken from the workflow's workgroup assigned to this type of activity.
      3. After the assignment is created, all participants are sent a notification that there is an assignment to claim.
      4. The first user who changes State to In Progress claims the assignment and can complete the work.
    9. In Workgroups, you must have a list of users who can complete the work. For example, if the activity is a legal review, you would create a workgroup that includes your company lawyers. To add or remove users in the Workgroups or create new groups, follow the steps in:
    10. On the Update Activity screen, select Update.
  6. To update the options you can select in a Transition:
    1. In the transition's title bar, select Edit.

      Results: The Update Transition screen opens.

    2. In Name, enter a unique title that starts with a verb (action word) describes the next activity the participants need to complete.
    3. By default, the Activity where you selected Create Transition is listed in From Activity.
      • Optionally, if you need to start from a different activity, you can select another one from the list of existing activities.
    4. In To Activity, from the list of existing activities, select what users need to complete after the From Activity.
    5. In Action, you can identify a process that is completed outside of Inspire, such as Hire a copy editor. You can also use an Action to specify something a user should do after Inspire completes the transition, such as Take a snapshot.
      Currently there is only one Action that is performed by Inspire. When a user advances a project workflow task and the Transition has an Action of InspireCreateReview, Inspire opens the Create Review screen for the current user. To use this action, follow the steps in: Add a Create Review Action to a topic workflow template.
      You can manage actions in the following ways:
    6. On the Update Transition screen, select Update.
  7. To revert a change, in the toolbar, click Undo.
  8. To re-apply a change in the toolbar, click Redo.
  9. To save your changes, do one of the following:
    • To keep the workflow editor open and save your work locally, click Save Progress.
    • To close the workflow editor and save your work to the database, click Save and Submit.

    Results:

    • The changes to an Activity will be applied to all new workflows that are started using this template.
    • For workflows that use this template and are in progress:
      • If the Activity you are updating has not occurred yet, the changes will be applied when the workflows moves to the updated Activity.
      • If the Activity you are updating has already been completed, the changes will not be applied.