The PublishTab and Publishing Workflow

  Meta::

    Valid for:  Silva 0.9+, Zope 2.5.1, Python 2.1.3
    Authors:    kit blake
                Clemens Klein-Robbenhaar 
    Email:      kitblake+infrae.com
                robbenhaar+espresto.com
    CVS:        $Revision: 1.9 $ $Date: 2003/06/20 13:47:49 $

  Approve, publish, and export content

    Bulk publishing and export operations occur in the PublishTab.
    Documents, folders, and publications can be published to the web
    (made public) or exported to XML. Later the XML can be converted for
    other applications.

    Having the right to publish depends on your role. If you are an
    Author, you may request approval of your content, and the responsible
    Editor will review it. In order to make changes to the publicly
    visible site you need at least an Editor role.

    Since the allowed actions depend on the role you play, the PublishTab
    interface changes accordingly. Authors and Editors see different
    controls.

  Author requests approval

    There are two ways to request approval, in the StatusTab of a
    ContentObject, and via a bulk operation in the PublishTab of a
    container (a Folder or Publication).

    The advantage of using the StatusTab of a document is an Author can
    include a message that is received by the Editor. Likewise, the
    Editor can reply if for some reason the request is rejected. If Silva
    is setup with an Email Message Service, these messages will be sent by
    email, including an automatic link to the corresponding location.

    When using the PublishTab of a container, an automatically
    generated message is sent to the other party. The following
    steps describe the process for an Author.

    1. Go to the PublishTab of the container where your content is
       located.

    1. Place a checkmark next to the items you want approved. You can use
       the |_Select_all_| button (alt-a) as well.

    1. The "Publish time" must be filled in, or check the 
       "Publish right now?" checkbox. If you wish you can
       fill  in "Expiration time". See the section on publish
       time below for an explanation.

    9. Click the |_Request_approval_| button (alt-r) to send the approval
       request to the responsible Editor. Please check the feedback on
       the returning page regarding the success or failure of sending
       your request.

    9. If the Editor approves or rejects your request, you will be
       notified. At any time in between you can redraw your request by
       visiting the location and clicking the |_Revoke_approval_| 
       button (alt-v).

  Editor publishes content

    1. Go to the PublishTab.

    2. Place a checkmark next to the items you wish to publish. You can
       use the |_Select_all_| button (alt-a) as well.

    3. Fill in a publication date, or check the "Publish right
       now" checkbox, which will use the current time as publish
       date. If necessary, fill in an expiration date and set it by
       checking "Set expiration time?".

    4. Click the |_Approve_| button (alt-o, for 'open').

    4. Check the returning screen for success or failure of your
       approval.

    4. Any time after approval you can intercept the publication via the
       |_Revoke_approval_| button (alt-v). In this case it's a good idea
       to do this via the StatusTab of the content, since you  can fill
       in a message in the "Message to author(s)" textarea to
       inform the author about the reason for the revocation.

    4. Alternatively you can close public content via the |_Close_|
       (alt-c) button if you decide it should taken offline.

    Notes

      - You can make new versions of closed content later on.

      - Authors may make editable copies to work on.

      - The semantical difference between revoking approval and closing is
        that the link (re)coloration indicates a problem with the document.
        If approval is revoked, the link turns red. Closed documents turn
        gray, which denotes the normal end of the life cycle of that version.

      - If you use the |_Select_all_| button (alt-a) to publish everything,
        remember that publications are not transparent. Besides the index, a
        publish action does not affect content within a nested publication.
        You must publish the contents of each publication separately.

  Publication and expiration date explanation

    If your content is approved, it will become publicly visible only
    within the time frame between publish time and expiration time. If you
    do not give an expiration date, the published content will remain
    public forever, or until someone closes it. Note that you have to
    check the "Set expiration time?" time checkbox when you
    want to set an expiration date, otherwise the expiration date will be
    ignored.

    Publication state of containers

      You cannot publish containers themselves. Instead the publication
      state of a container is managed via its 'index' document. If you
      view the Publish tab of a container with subcontainers, the index
      documents are listed instead of the container.

  Reading information in the PublishTab

    If you want to check the condition of the content, you'll find the
    information in the listing table of the PublishTab. This does not
    depend on your role; the information is always visible. In the
    listing ids are shown on the left (note that only publicly visible
    items appear, no folders or assets). Titles are indented to show the
    publication structure.

    The relevant status information can be found in the three rightmost
    columns of the listing table (discussed from left to right).

      New Version column

        Displays information about the current version. The possible
        states are:

        - **Not approved**: (link color is red, a 'stop' color) 
          the content is waiting for approval.

        - **Pending**: (link color is dark yellow, like a 
          stoplight) the approval task is on some Editor's To-Do list.

        - **Approved**: (link color is green, a 'go') the
          content has been approved, but is not published yet. (You must
          revoke the approval before re-editing it.)

        - **Published**: (link color is blue, a normal link) the content
          is visible for the public.

        - **None**: (link color is gray) indicates that there is no new 
          version and the public version is closed. You can create a
          new version by clicking the edit link, or use the 
          |_Create_new_versions_| button (alt-n) for a bulk operation.

        If the object is an index of a Folder or Publication, an 
        "See" link and icon appears that links to the
        PublishTab of that container.

      Publish Date column

        If a publish time other than "now" has been given, the
        time is listed. Otherwise the cell is empty.

      Doc column

        Information about the published, non-editable version. This may
        contain a blue "Published" link for currently public
        versions, a gray "Closed" note for closed or expired
        versions, or be empty if there is no public version. If the
        content is "Published" then it's linked to the
        publicly visible page.

  Versioning of documents

    Once content is published a new version can be created. The published
    version stays online for the public, while the editable version can be
    worked on, or approved with a publication date in the future.

    Once published, content cannot be reverted back to an editable state.
    The content can only be closed, which takes it offline, or a new
    version can be created.

  Export a container (folders and publications)

    If you play an Editor role, you can download an XML version of the
    published content of the current container. It is not necessary to
    select items, the entire contents of the container will be exported
    when the |_Export_all_| button (alt-e) is clicked.

    You'll receive a text file containing an XML representation of the
    content that can be processed by other applications. Descriptions of
    two of these applications follow.

    The same XML can be imported in another location (such as a different 
    Silva site).

  Docma

    Docma  is an acronym for DOCument MAker, a suite of small
    applications which take Silva XML and convert it to another
    document format. If a DocmaServer is installed and running, Silva
    can access it transparently.

    DocmaServer 

      DocmaServer is a batch processing server that, converts Silva XML
      to Word documents and back does (a 'round trip'). The
      server is designed for handling multiple simultaneous users, and
      queues conversion requests much like a print queuer, providing
      job status feedback and estimated processing times. 

      See http://www.infrae.com/ for more information.
  
    Export to Word

      To create a Word document out of Silva content use the |_Export_| button
      in the Publish tab Use the "Export to Docma (.doc)" box.  The
      options "Include sub publications?" and "Export newest
      version?" have the same functionality as in a normal XML export.  
      
      o **Email address:** You are notified once your job is finished. 

      o **Word template:** You job is prepended by the selected
        template.  

      o **Enter a description of the job:** The job will be shown with this
        description in the job lists.

      Click the [_Export_to_Docma_] button to start the export (alt-d).

      Once the job is finished it will show up in the "List of Processed
      Items" in the lower part of the export screen. To download an item
      click on "Download" at the same row as the item; you can save the 
      item on your desktop or open it.

<br />
Copyright &copy; 2002, 2003 Infrae. All rights reserved.<br />
See also "LICENSE.txt":license.txt
