Technology Help Website: Use Content Moderation

Content Moderation adds an editorial workflow to the creation and updating of content. 

In this article:

• Understanding the Workflow States
  • Using the Editorial Workflow
  • Changing Workflow States
  • Scheduling a Workflow State Change
• Preparing a New Draft for Currently Published Content
  1. Create a New Draft of Published Content
  2. Publish the Draft Revision

Understanding the Workflow States

The content moderation workflow in the Technology Help website has four primary states: 

• Draft
• In Review
• Published
• Archived (Unpublished)

The state will be displayed as a flag in the top right corner of the administration toolbar when logged in.

Any content editor can change the workflow state provided they have access to edit the page content. Content editors will only see the workflow states that their role allows them to see. For example, you will only see the Published and Archived states if you have the Page Publisher role.

To understand what access you have to the editorial workflow, review this table:

Using the Editorial Workflow

1. Sign in to the Technology Help website
2. Create a new content page. (See "Add a New Page" section in the Technology Help Website: Create and Edit Content self-help guide.)
3. Enter your content.
4. Select Save. The content is saved as Draft (default workflow step).
5. Continue working on the draft content until it is complete. Then change the workflow state to In Review.
   
   1. Alert the subject matter expert (SME) that the content should be reviewed.
6. Once the content is approved by the SME, alert someone with the Page Publisher role that the page is ready to be Published. If you have the Page Publisher role you can change the state to Published.
7. Other workflow changes include:
   1. Draft - if the SME does not accept the content and more changes are needed you can return the content to the Draft state. .
   2. Published - if the content passes review.
   3. NOTE: The subject matter expert may not have editing privileges for the content. They can communicate to the content editor which option should be used – Draft, for further editing; or Publish.

Changing a Workflow State

There are two ways to change the workflow state:

• When Editing content
  • Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the new state
  • Select Save
• When Viewing content
  • Select Tasks in the administration toolbar on the top right. A drop down palette is displayed.
  • Select the new state. The new state is displayed in the administration toolbar.

Scheduling a Workflow State Change

Content editors also have the ability to schedule workflow state change(s). 

To schedule a state change:

1. View the content
2. Select Edit. The edit content form is displayed.
3. Select Schedule a Status Change at the bottom of the form.
   1. Choose which state the workflow will be changed to and enter a date and time.
      • The cron job that updates the workflow state change runs hourly at XX:45. To have a state change at 8:00 am, enter 7:00 am as the time.
   2. Select Save. The scheduled information is displayed.
4. Select Save.

Multiple workflow state changes can be scheduled for the same content. As an example, there might be content that is only applicable for the week, so the content can be scheduled to be published Monday morning, and archived Friday evening.

Preparing a New Draft for Currently Published Content

If you need to update content on a Published page but are not ready to publish those changes, then you can use the Create New Draft and Latest version features to prepare your content changes. This allows you to prepare your edits for the page without impacting the public view on the site.

Important: Do not simply select Draft on the Edit Content form. That will fully change the content state from Published to Draft (and thus remove it from the public view on the published site). 

Creating a New Draft of Published Content

Follow these steps to properly prepare your New Draft page edits without impacting the existing published site content:

1. View the page you want to edit.
2. Select the Tasks button in the administration toolbar on the top right.
3. Select Create New Draft.
   
4. A new tab named Latest version will appear when you view the content. This is the New Draft version.
   
   Select the Edit tab to make changes to the New Draft revision of the published content.
5. Select the Revisions tab to view the revisions of the content. The current (Published) revision will be highlighted yellow.
   
6. When it is ready to be published to the site, Publish the New Draft Revision (on this page)

Publishing the New Draft Revision

When the New Draft is ready to be published, select Publish using either the Tasks button (if viewing the page) or the workflow state selector (if editing the page).

• Resource: Change Workflow State (on this page)