Shelf Content Publication Workflow Permissions Guide

Document Version History

Version number	Modified by	Modifications made	Date modified	Status
1.0	Shelf	Initial release of the document.	5 Jan 2023	Active

Document Purpose

This guide has been developed for those customer organizations that use Shelf’s Content Publication Workflow (CPW) to meet their business needs. The target audience for the document are:

Agents who can create tasks using the Content Publication Workflow
Editors who can edit tasks and send them for review
Managers who are responsible for specific libraries, review and publish tasks
Supervisors who are interested in reports and analytics

The purpose of this guide is to explain what the Content Publication Workflow is, its intended use, and what Content Publication Workflow permissions are needed to allow users to perform their business tasks in the most efficient manner.

The Shelf Content Publication Workflow Permissions Guide should be read together with the following document: Shelf Users and Permissions Functionality: User and Permission Management Overview. The aforementioned document provides general knowledge about users, user roles, user groups, and permissions in Shelf.

For further assistance, feel free to contact us at support@shelf.io or from the in-app chat support within the Shelf platform.

Prerequisites
Understanding User Roles and Their Permissions in Content Publication Workflow
User Groups Permissions in CPW

Shelf Content Publication Workflow and Its Purpose

Content Publication Workflow (CPW) is a separate Shelf app that can be viewed as a mandatory review process when making changes to content. This feature provides the ability to manage content through create/update/delete tasks via the centralized workflow management system. CPW gives the possibility for content users to request content changes, and for content managers to approve or decline these requests/changes.

In the context of CPW, a task is a content draft, which can be a Gem of any available type (Note: to read more about Shelf’s Gem types, review the Content section of the Shelf Answer Assist End-to-End Guide). Users can create tasks on existing or new Gems, process them through the predetermined workflow, assign these tasks to other users, and publish them.

CPW allows users to edit, modify or update tasks (content) in various ways, as needed. These actions will not affect the original content as long as the new version has not been published; in CPW terminology, this is when the task status is: Done).

For more details around the specifics, configurations, and settings for CPW, a Content Publication Workflow End-to-End Guide will be provided and is scheduled for development in the near future. However, this guide is designed to explain what permissions are available for CPW users and how they can be managed.

Prerequisites

To use the Shelf Content Publication Workflow feature and configure its permissions, the following steps are required:

The CPW feature must be available and enabled for your account by the Shelf Support Team
You must be an Admin user role in your Shelf account
CPW must be enabled in the Customize menu of the Admin Panel of your Shelf KMS instance

Figure 1. Enabling CPW in your Shelf Admin Panel’s Customize menu

An additional prerequisite for the correct use of Shelf’s Content Publication Workflow is the necessity to create and configure User Group(s).Read more about User Groups in the Shelf Users and Permissions Functionality: User and Permission Management Overview document.

Understanding User Roles and Their Permissions in Content Publication Workflow

Users who take part in the content publication processes fall into one of these three roles, based on their content knowledge and interactions with it:

Content Author
Content Approver
Content Publisher

Users in Shelf Knowledge Management System (Shelf KMS), are divided into separate four user roles: Admin, Collaborator, Member, and View-only. To better understand how these roles translate from a general content publication process to the Shelf CPW process, see below:

Content Authors → Members, Collaborators, Admins
Content Approvers → Collaborators, Admins
Content Publishers → Collaborators, Admins

This means that content via the Shelf CPW can be: Created by the Member, Collaborator, and Admin users; Approved by the Collaborator and Admin users; Published by the Collaborator and Admin users.

This section will list the different Shelf user roles and highlight what actions they can or cannot take in the Shelf CPW process. Please note, the information below is describing the user roles and their permissions as they pertain to CPW, but for details about Shelf-wide user roles, permissions, and other related aspects, refer to the Shelf Users and Permissions Functionality: User and Permission Management Overview document.

Admin User Role

Any user with the Admin user role can:

Create tasks in CPW
View and edit tasks in CPW
Publish content of the completed tasks in CPW
View all tasks for all libraries in the CPW Dashboard
Manage other users in CPW - change their roles, edit their user groups, etc.

Collaborator User Role

Any user with the Collaborator user role can:

Create tasks in CPW
View and edit tasks in CPW
Publish content of the completed tasks in CPW
View in the CPW Dashboard all tasks for those libraries they have access to

Member User Role

Any user with the Member user role can:

Create tasks in CPW
View and edit tasks in CPW
Publish content of the completed tasks in CPW if these tasks relate to the Member’s own Gems
View in the CPW Dashboard all tasks for those libraries they have access to

View-only User Role

Users that were created with the View-only role currently do not have access to CPW. This access will be granted after the CPW feature is released.

It needs to be stressed that access to CPW and its actions is based on the user's access to Gems. It means that users who have access to view Gems will also be able to create content requests and view CPW tasks, while users who are permitted to edit Gems will be able to publish content creation/change tasks (in case the appropriate toggle is switched ON).

User Groups Permissions in CPW

In order to add more flexibility to CPW and to make it more convenient and clear for users, Shelf is implementing a new approach to CPW-related permissions based on User Groups and their permissions.

While this guide is focused on CPW-specific aspects for User Groups, for more detailed information about User Groups in Shelf, refer to the Shelf Users and Permissions Functionality: User and Permission Management Overview document.

Managing User Access to CPW Actions

In accordance with the new approach, Admin users are able to view all CPW actions in User Groups and, respectively, can manage other users’ access to these actions. The prerequisite for this is the need to create a User Group and add active members to it.

In order to manage user access to CPW actions, an Admin must follow these steps:

Go to the User Groups menu in the Shelf Admin Panel
Select the necessary User Group in the list of available user groups to open it
Figure 2. Accessing the User Groups menu and selecting the needed User Group
Navigate to the App Permissions tab in this User Group (see Figure 3)
Figure 3. Accessing the App Permissions tab in the User Group window
Find the Content Publication Workflow section and switch the respective toggle(s) on

By default, these toggles are switched off, and the Admin needs to switch on the ones they need for this particular User Group.

The Request content changes toggle, when ON, allows members of the selected User Group to use CPW for requesting content changes, including: requesting content deletion, requesting changes to existing content, and requesting new content creation.
Figure 5. Viewing the Gem page options with the Request content changes toggle OFF
Figure 6. Viewing the Gem page options with the Request content changes toggle ON

The same options will be observed in all windows and pages of the Shelf KMS and its components: Web App’s Home page, Library and Folder pages, Self-Service Portal’s Library and Folder pages, Content Maintenance page, and Feedback page.

Access Content Publication Workflow (CPW) is the toggle that enables members of the selected User Group to get access to CPW tasks.

Below is the detailed list of actions members of a User Group with the enabled toggle are permitted to perform via CPW:

(1) View task list and task details pages

Figure 7. Viewing the task list in CPW

Figure 8. Viewing the task details page in CPW

(2) Filter tasks and export them in the Task List page

Figure 9. Filtering tasks and exporting their list in CPW

(3) Edit any task content

Figure 10. Editing the task content in CPW

(4) Edit tags (if the task is of the Create type), categories, and locations

Figure 11. Editing the task tag, category and/or location

(5) Edit the Task comments and description

Figure 12. Editing the task description and/or comments

(6) Change assignees, deadlines, Scheduled Publications

Figure 13. Editing the task assignee/deadline/scheduled publication

(7) Change Status based on their role (View-only users cannot publish tasks, Member users can publish tasks only if they relate to these users’ own Gems)

If this toggle is switched on for a specific User Group, the CPW home page for the User Group members will be the Task List page as shown in Figure 7 above.

If the toggle is off, then users from this User Group attempting to access the Task List page or Task Dashboard page will be redirected to the 403 page - Permission denied.

Access CPW Dashboard analytics is the toggle that allows members of the selected User Group to use the CPW Dashboard for analytics or reporting. In this dashboard, they are able to view all CPW-related data, including the number of CPW tasks completed, approved, rejected, or published.

Figure 15. Accessing and viewing the CPW Dashboard page

If this toggle is ON for a User Group, the CPW home page for its members will be the CPW Dashboard page as shown below. If the Access CPW Dashboard analytics toggle is OFF but the Access Content Publication Workflow (CPW) toggle is ON, the User Group members will be redirected to the Task List page. At the same time, if both toggles - Access CPW Dashboard analytics and Access Content Publication Workflow (CPW) - are OFF, users are redirected to the Home page of the Shelf web app.

Moreover, when the toggle is OFF, the Dashboard option is removed from the CPW sidebar panel.

Figure 16. Viewing the Dashboard option in the CPW sidebar panel

On the CPW Dashboard page, authorized users can view various statistics on CPW tasks and also access certain tasks by clicking the respective counters.

Figure 17. Viewing and using the CPW Dashboard counters

The counters depend on the user's library access: if the user does not have access to a specific library, the tasks from that library are not displayed in the CPW Dashboard for this user. The same applies to selecting or changing the task location on the Task List page; if the user has no access to the library, it is removed from the list of libraries available for selection.

❗Important Note

Once the CPW permissions feature is released and enabled for your organization, users with existing access to the CPW actions will lose their permissions. To prevent this situation, we will automatically create a User Group on your account with all Admins, Collaborators, and Members.

CPW permissions feature was implemented to enhance the user experience by:

Providing a single location for all activities associated with CPW access management
Preventing situations where some users have access to CPW even if they were not specifically granted such access

Understanding CPW Permissions for Users from Various User Groups

Oftentimes, one user can be a member of more than one User Group. When this occurs, their access to the CPW actions is discussed below.

The prerequisites for this case are as follows:

CPW must be enabled for the organization the user belongs to
CPW must be enabled by user’s organization Admin(s) in the Customize menu of the Shelf Admin Panel
User role must be set to Member via the Manage Users menu in the Shelf Admin Panel

Figure 18. Defining the user role in the Shelf Admin Panel

User must be added to the active User Group via the User Groups menu in the Shelf Admin Panel

Figure 19. Checking if the user is a member of the User Group

The Access Content Publication Workflow (CPW) toggle must be enabled in the App Permissions tab for the given User Group

In summary, here is a breakdown of the situation:

A user has the Member user role
A user is a member of two or more User Groups
User Group 1: the user has been granted access to the CPW actions for Request content change, Access Content Publication Workflow (CPW) and Access CPW Dashboard analytics toggles are ON (enabled)
User Group 2: the user has no access to the CPW actions and all toggles are OFF (disabled)

In this case, Shelf, and CPW, treats this specific user as if all their User Groups have access to the CPW actions. The system will recognize the highest level of access granted.

It also covers libraries the user has access to: if User Group 1 has access to Library 1 and User Group 2 has access to Library 1 and Library 2, then, even when the CPW access has been disabled for User Group 2, the user will still have access to both libraries.

Understanding User CPW Permissions based on Library Access

In this case, users can access CPW actions based on those libraries they are permitted to access.

For instance, users of your organization can access your organization’s library. However, in regards to individual or private libraries, users can only perform CPW actions in them if they have been granted the respective access rights.

Figure 20. Viewing users with access to a private library

This restriction applies to the User Group members as well: if a User Group has no access to a specific library in the Library Permissions tab of the User Group window, its members cannot view, edit or publish tasks for this library.

Figure 21. Accessing and configuring User Group access to libraries

It is also worth noting that if the individual permission level of a User Group member in regard to some specific library is lower than the permission level granted to this User Group in general to that library, this member cannot publish tasks for this library even if the Access Content Publication Workflow (CPW) toggle is switched ON.

For example: the individual library role for the user is View-only, while their User Group role is Admin.

In this case, individual library permissions of the user override their User Group-based library permissions.

Conclusion

We hope that after reading this guide you have become more familiar with Shelf’s Content Publication Workflow (CPW) feature, its permissions and what is needed to configure them properly.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions about CPW and its functionality, feel free to contact our Support Team at support@shelf.io or from the in-app chat within the Shelf platform if it’s enabled on your account.

Shelf Content Publication Workflow Permissions Guide_V.1.0