Manage workflows

  • Updated

A workflow lets you set up processes that meet your team's specific collaboration, approval, and publishing requirements for types of tasks, content formats, and other use cases. Custom workflows are for teams with more complex content collaboration requirements (such as working with an editorial team or an agency that may require a mandatory approval step before content is published).

Workflows are accessible only to account administrators. If you need to be an administrator, contact another administrator (or email support@optimizely.com).

As an Admin, go to your avatar > Workflow.

Create a workflow

Click Create New Workflow on the settings page. The configuration window for a new workflow displays. 

Add title and description

Enter a title for the workflow. Optionally enter a description to the workflow. The Enable Flexible workflow option is selected by default to let you update the workflow on the task page. You can select other options.

Create-workflow-title-section.png

Apply Smart duration

Smart duration automatically adjusts multiple due dates in subsequent steps if a step is completed ahead of or later than its due date. It also adjusts the task due dates if the previous step was completed or skipped on a different date than its assigned due date. Activating Smart duration for an existing workflow impacts only new tasks that you create with that workflow.

Add a step and apply actions

Click Add Step to add a step to your workflow. (Click Add external step to integrate external systems with the workflow.) For tasks that do not require multi-step collaboration, you can leverage a Single-step Workflow, which lets you complete all the actions needed to publish or share content.

Steps are unassigned by default. However, in some work processes, a step is always done by the same person, such as a legal or editorial review. You can assign someone or a team to a step by clicking the user icon. Select someone from the list or type their name, or the name of a team (where all members of a team get notifications).

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Step Duration lets you automatically set due dates for common tasks, which are applied at the time of task creation. Step duration is optional, but if you set one, you have to set a duration for each step in the workflow.

Select one or more of the following workflow actions to apply it to a step. You can share the responsibilities of the task with your team by assigning those steps to them.

Action name

Description

Dependency

Find Content

Gives the assignee access to search the Library (and/or Marketplace) for content

No dependency

Write/Edit Content

Gives the assignee permission to access the Content Editor to write/edit content

No dependency

Write/Edit Share

Gives the assignee permission to write/edit in the social share widgets

No dependency

Set Publish Destination

Gives the assignee permission to set a Publish Destination (including Feeds, Social Channels)

No dependency

Set Publish Date

Gives the assignee permission to alter the Publish Date (Note: If the date is left unaltered, it publishes when the task is completed)

Must be preceded by:

  • Set Publish Destination

Select Image

Gives the assignee permission to search the Library (and/or Marketplace) for content

Must be preceded by:

  • Find Content

Publish/Share

Gives the assignee permission to publish the content, or share to social media

Must be preceded by:

  • Set Publish Destination
  • Set Publish Date

Approve

Gives the assignee the responsibility of approving the article

Must be preceded by any of:

  • Find Content
  • Write/Edit Content
  • Write/Edit Share

Edit Fields

Gives the assignee permission to make changes to fields

No dependency

People can perform only the specific actions listed within their steps. Therefore, if you need more than one person to review and edit content, then select Write/edit content in multiple steps.

Add a sub-step

Click Add New Sub-Step to add multiple sub-steps for users or teams, and completed in any order when the parent step is the current step.

Create-workflow-substeps.png

Push to library

This action pushes related assets to the library when the task is completed. You can push the assets as a new version or as a new asset. You can also push the asset with or without the public URL.

Create-workflow-push-to-library.png

Add a field to a workflow

You can add a field to a workflow to make the specific field visible on the task details page (Fields tab) when this workflow is used. Adding a field also helps to expedite the add operation of a task because fields identified with a workflow are available when you assign the workflow to the task when adding a task. For example, you may want to ensure that the Department is visible whenever someone uses this workflow so that the user can complete it anytime they see it. You can select multiple fields to apply to your workflow.

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Mandatory fields ensure your team tags every task at the right time during the task lifecycle. To apply mandatory fields, select the option menu (...) and enable Mandatory. Label fields offer an additional option when you select Mandatory. You can make labels mandatory At Task Creation or At Task Completion. For example:

Create-workflow-add-field-mandatory.png

Order fields for entry

Drag and drop the fields into your desired order.

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Set up default publishing channels

You can optionally select default publishing channels for your workflows. When you assign a workflow, the default publishing channels automatically populate in the corresponding task.

Create-workflow-publishing-channels-selected.png

Place publishing channels on a block list

You can optionally prevent channels from appearing as options when it comes to publishing. 

Create-workflow-blacklisted-channels.png

After you configure your workflow, select Save Workflow and your workflow is available to apply to any new tasks.

Delete a workflow

  1. Select avatar > Workflows.
  2. Choose the workflow you want to delete by hovering over the workflow tile and click Edit, which opens the workflow page.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the workflow page and click Delete Workflow (the trash can icon).
  4. Click Delete in the confirmation message.