Presentation at Arizona State University's Drupal Users Group in March, 2008

1. Content Access and
Workflows
ASU Drupal Users Group
March, 2008

2. Typical Workflow
EVENTS STATES ACTIONS
“Author” creates •Set access control
Restricted to authors and
or updates NEEDS REVIEW editors
article •Notify editors
NEEDS WORK •Notify author
“Editor” updates •Set access control
Visible to world, editable
or reviews PUBLISHED by editors
article •Notify author
Inspired by http://drupal.org/node/156317

3. Basic permissions
Author Editor
Create X X
Edit own X X
Edit all X

4. Implementation options
Workflow + Actions
Simplest choice
Assumes most common use cases
Workflow NG + (Other Stuff)
Powerful, but difficult

5. Workflow
and
Actions

6. Requirements
Drupal 5.x
Workflow
Actions (v1.x only for now)

7. Transitions
Article is created and needs review
Article is reviewed and needs work
Article is updated and needs review
Article is reviewed and published
Article is created and published immediately

8. This looks
hard!

9. Well, it is
It’s less a technical problem than it is a people
problem.
Spend plenty of time planning your workflow.
Keep it as simple as possible.
Planning should involve the people who will
actually use the workflow.

10. Workflow NG

11. NG Requirements
Drupal 5.x
Modules
ACL
Content Access
Workflow NG (Requires: Token)
CCK
Views (recommended)

12. Pros
More flexible
Complex rules with boolean conditions
Complex actions
Lots of community support

13. Cons
Steep learning curve
Difficult to do simple workflows
Under heavy development - moving target

14. What else can you do?
Create views of content needing review or work
Create an “unpublished” state that is only
available when content is published

15. Other useful tools
Revisions
The Diff module
Devel module

16. Future of
workflows

17. Drupal 6 / 7
Actions and Triggers (events) in core for as of v6
Write your own for version 5, 6 or 7
They are the logical future for many hook-related
methods
Rules module