This is also a great feature. I’ll look into implementing such a change.
But in the mean time, how about creating a separate workflow to manage published articles.
The user has to select the workflow during submit, and with a little training the users can select the smaller workflow for published articles.
just a thought.
Thread Starter
sehnot
(@sehnot)
Hi nuggetsol,
we currently use a second workflow (one workflow for new content, one workflow for updates), but that has some disadvantages. When an author selects the wrong workflow (and believe me that WILL happen, no matter how well you train them) you run into two problems:
1) The workflow is simply wrong, meaning wrong people are involved which is bad, but no show stopper
2) The content of the site gets messed up which is a huge issue! Let me explain:
The workflow for new content sets the status to something like “draft” or “pending” until the very last step, as everyone involved has to approve it first.
The workflow for updates sets the status to “published” from the first step, because otherwise your article gets removed from the site just because of a small change (like a correction of a typo).
Now, here is what happens when someone submits to the wrong workflow
Example A:
1) Author creates a new article, but submits to the “update”-workflow
2) The workflow publishes the article without any approval!
Example B:
1) Author updates an article, but submits to the “new”-workflow
2) The workflow un-publishes the article!!!
3) The article is not visible to the public until everyone approves it
Therefore the flag for the workflow would guarantee that an author can’t select the wrong workflow and already published articles can’t be un-published.
Finally, for the “update”-workflow somthing like this http://wordpress.org/support/topic/updates-without-unpublishing-posts would be great!
Thanks!
On the update workflow,
how about the following…
Instead of adding a published flag to the workflow, how about adding a “initial status” to the workflow.
If the “initial status” matches with the status of the post/page, its deemed as eligible for submit to the workflow.
this way, it will be more flexible.
Thread Starter
sehnot
(@sehnot)
So the “initial status” works as a filter? Then you should be able to select several options for the initial status: The article can only be submitted to a workflow if its status matches one of the selected workflow statuses at “initial status”…
Or, you have a combination of two drop downs: status “is”/”is not” <status list>
Either way, sounds great!
I have included workflow support for published content with the “Pro” version.
Essentially, you can revise a published version of the page/post. Let the revision flow through the workflow, while keeping the current version online.
When you are ready to publish the revised version, the workflow will simply copy over the contents to the published article.
check out more details at – http://www.oasisworkflow.com/workflow-support-for-updating-published-content.
In future, I’ll add a feature where we can set something on the workflow to distinguish it for “revised” articles and “new” articles.
The latest release of the “Pro” version comes with a feature where you can distinguish workflows for “new” and “revised” items. Check out the blog at http://www.oasisworkflow.com/oasis-workflow-pro-1-0-6-released
