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********************************************************************
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D R U P A L M O D U L E
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********************************************************************
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Name: Workflow Module
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Author: John VanDyk
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Maintainers: Mark Fredrickson <mark.m.fredrickson at gmail dot com>
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John VanDyk drupal.org/user/2375
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Drupal: 6
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********************************************************************
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DESCRIPTION:
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The workflow module enables you to create arbitrary workflows in
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Drupal and associate them with node types.
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Workflows are made up of workflow states.
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Moving from one state to another is called a transition.
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Actions are associated with transitions (actions.module was used
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for this in Drupal 5; core actions support is in Drupal 6).
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Alex Reisner introduced role-based permissions for workflow states
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and generally enhanced this module.
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********************************************************************
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INSTALLATION:
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1. Place the entire workflow directory into your Drupal
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sites/all/modules directory.
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2. Enable the workflow module by navigating to:
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Administer > Site building > Modules
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Enabling the workflow module will create the necessary database
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tables for you.
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3. If you want anyone besides the administrative user to be able
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to configure workflows (usually a bad idea), they must be given
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the "administer workflow" access permission:
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Administer > User management > Permissions
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When the module is enabled and the user has the "administer
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workflow" permission, a "Workflow" menu should appear in the
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menu system under Administer -> Site building.
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You may also allow only some users to schedule transitions. Select
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the "schedule workflow transitions" permission to allow transitions.
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********************************************************************
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GETTING STARTED:
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Let's create a new workflow. Click on Administer -> Site building ->
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Workflow and click on the "Add workflow" tab.
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We'll start simple. Call our workflow "Draft-Done" and click Add Workflow.
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Now lets add some workflow states to our workflow. Click "add state" and
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enter "draft" and click the Add State button. Do the same for "done".
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So we've got a workflow with two states, "draft" and "done". Now we
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have to tell each state which other states it can move to. With only
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two states, this is easy. Click on the "edit" link to edit the workflow
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and see its states.
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The "From / To -->" column lists all states. To the right are columns
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for each state. Within each cell is a list of roles with checkboxes.
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This is confusing. It's easiest to understand if you read rows
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across from the left. For example, we start with the creation
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state. Who may move a node from its creation state to the "draft"
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state? Well, the author of the node, for one. So check the "author"
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checkbox.
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Who may move the node from the "draft" state to the "done" state?
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This is up to you. If you want authors to be able to do this,
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check the "author" checkbox under the "done" state. If you had
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another role, say "editor", that you wanted to give the ability
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to decree a node as "done", you'd check the checkbox next to
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the "editor" role and not the author role. In this scenario authors
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would turn in drafts and editors would say when they are "done".
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Be sure to click the Save button to save your settings.
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Now let's tell Drupal which node types should use this workflow. Click
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on Administer -> Site building -> Workflow. Let's assign the Draft-Done
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workflow to the story node type and click Save Workflow Mapping.
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Now we could add an action (previously configured using the trigger
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module). Click on the Actions link above
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your workflow. Add the action to the transition.
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Now create a new story by going to Create content -> Story. If there
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is no sign of a workflow interface here, don't panic. The interface
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is only displayed if there is more than one state to which the user
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can move the node (why bother the user with a form with only one
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selection?) Click Submit to create the story.
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You can see the state the node is in and the history of state changes
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by clicking on the Workflow tab while viewing a node.
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Changing the state to "done" and clicking Submit will fire the action
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you set up earlier.
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********************************************************************
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