Review Workflows#

Review Workflows define custom multi-stage pipelines for content review, facilitating collaboration from draft to publication. This documentation walks through creating workflows and assigning stages.

The Review Workflows feature allows you to create and manage workflows for your various content-types. Each workflow can consist of any review stages for your content, enabling your team to collaborate in the content creation flow from draft to publication.

CMS Enterprise Plan Minimum "Read" permission in Roles > Settings - Review Workflows Available by default, if required plan Available in both Development & Production environment

Configuration#

Path to configure the feature: Settings > Global settings > Review Workflows

For the review workflows to be usable in the Content Manager, the default one should be configured or a new one should be created.

The default workflow is configured to have 4 stages, in this order: To do, Ready to review, In progress, and Reviewed. All 4 stages can be edited, reordered or deleted as needed, and it is also possible to add new stages.

Admin panel settings#

Creating a new workflow#

Click on the Create new workflow button or on the edit button of a workflow.

In the workflow edit interface, configure the new workflow:

Setting name	Instructions
Workflow name	Write a unique name for the workflow.
Associated to	(optional) Assign this workflow to one or more existing content-types.
Stages	Add review stages (see Adding a new stage).
Required stage for publishing	(optional) Select the stage entries must be at to be published (see Requiring a stage for publishing).

Click on the Save button. The new workflow will be displayed in the list view and for every content-type assigned.

Editing a workflow#

Adding a new stage#

Click on the Add new stage button.
Write the Stage name.
Select a Color.
Select Roles that can change from this stage, to define which roles can move content out of this stage.
Select Roles that can move content to this stage, to define which roles can transition content into this stage.
Click on the Save button.

By default new stages are appended, but they can be reordered anytime using the button.

Duplicating a stage#

Click Duplicate Stage in the context menu of the stage.
Change the name of the duplicated stage.
Click on the Save button.

Requiring a stage for publishing#

The Required stage for publishing setting of a workflow prevents entries from being published if they are not at the selected stage. It applies to every content-type associated to the workflow.

In the workflow edit interface, click the Required stage for publishing drop-down list.
Select a stage of the workflow, or Any stage to allow publishing from any stage.
Click on the Save button.

An entry must be exactly at the selected stage to be published: an entry at a later stage cannot be published either. Choosing the last stage of the workflow as the required stage avoids this situation.

When the setting is defined, publishing an entry that is not at the required stage returns an error. In Releases, entries that are not at the required stage are flagged as not ready to be published.

Deleting a stage#

To delete a stage, click in the context menu of the stage, then Delete.

If you delete a stage that entries are at, these entries are moved to the closest previous stage in the workflow. If the deleted stage was the first one, the entries are moved to the next stage instead. Every workflow needs to contain at least one stage and therefore it is not possible to delete the last stage.

Deleting a workflow#

To delete a workflow click on the delete button of a workflow in the list view.

Usage#

Path to use the feature: Content Manager

Changing review stage {#change-review-stage}#

As content is created and revised among your team, you can change the review stage of the content. The available target stages in the dropdown depend on your role's permissions: you must have permission to move content from the current stage and permission to move content to the target stage.

Access the edit view of your content-type.
In the Review Workflows box on the right side of the interface, click on the Review stage drop-down list.
Choose the new review stage of your entry. It is automatically saved.

Defining assignee {#change-assignee}#

Entries of a review workflow content type can be assigned to any admin user in Strapi for review.

Access the edit view of your content-type.
In the Review Workflows box on the right side of the interface, click on the Assignee drop-down list.
Choose the new assignee of your entry. It is automatically saved.

Audit logging of review workflow actions#

Review workflow actions are automatically captured in Audit Logs. Changes to a workflow, to the review stage of an entry, and to the assignee of an entry each produce a log entry.

The following actions are recorded:

Action	What is logged
Create workflow	The content types the workflow applies to, its stages, and the stage required to publish.
Update workflow	The fields that changed, among the name, content types, stages, and stage required to publish, with their previous and new values. No entry is created if nothing changed.
Delete workflow	The name and identifier of the deleted workflow.
Change entry review stage	The locale, the workflow the entry belongs to, and the previous and new stage.
Change entry assignee	The locale, and the previous and new assignee. An entry with no assignee is recorded as empty. No entry is created if the assignee did not change.

Stages are recorded by name, with their color and the roles allowed to move content from and to them. Content types and roles are sorted before comparison, so reordering them alone is not recorded as a change. Assignees are recorded as admin user identifiers, not as user names.

To view these log entries, go to Settings > Audit Logs and filter by action.