Your content workflow isn’t just about the process of writing and publishing. A solid team workflow can boost your overall productivity and practically run your content team itself. Whether you are a solo blogger or manage a team, with the new Workflow feature of Joomla 4 you can easily set up your workflow to manage your content development.
While the Joomla 4 release news is still hot, let’s take a look at what the hype about the new workflow feature is all about and how it works. But before we proceed, please note that you don’t need to migrate to Joomla 4 ASAP. Wait till all the products ( templates, plugins, extensions) in use on your live site are fully compatible with Joomla 4.
The New Workflow Feature
The new workflow feature of Joomla 4 allows you to create a customized workflow to manage articles. It consists of everything involved to successfully execute content creation – whether you run a content team or a solo blogger.
With this feature, you can ensure the entire team is clear on their and others’ responsibilities. It will also save you time as the article publication process will go through a system.
You don’t have to stick to one workflow. This feature’s flexibility will allow you to create various workflows depending on your needs. In this article, we’ll implement a workflow from planning to the publishing process. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Workflow From Idea to Publication (Planning)
Planning what your workflow will do beforehand is a must to effectively execute it. Here’s the content workflow plan that we will implement in this tutorial.
Initially, when an author comes up with a topic, it will be in the Idea stage. An idea can either be set On Hold or approved to be In Progress. From the In Progress stage, the article will proceed to the In Review stage. And finally, from the review stage, it can be Published if it is ready to release or go back to the In Progress stage to make edits.
Step 2: Create User Groups and Add Users (Optional)
This step is optional as you can also use the default user groups such as Author, Manager, etc.
In this step, we will set up the users group for the Editorial team, who can review the articles submitted by the authors. To create a new user group, go to Users > Groups > New.
Set the Group Title to Editorial Team and Group Parents to Registered. Hit Save & Close.
Now, let’s add users to this Editorial Team user group. To do that, go to Users > Manage > New.
In the Account Details tab, set the editorial team name, username, password, and email. Scroll down a bit and enable the receive system emails option.
Now, click on the Assigned User Groups tab and select the Editorial Team user group we have created earlier.
Step 3: Enable Workflow in Joomla 4
To create our workflow, we need to first enable the workflow option in Joomla 4. To do that, go to the administrator panel and navigate to Content → Articles → Options → Integration. Scroll down to the bottom, and you will see an option to enable workflow.
Once the workflow is enabled, each article can now undergo transitions before it is published.
Step 4: Create a New Workflow
You can create different types of workflow using the new Joomla 4 workflow feature on your needs. It will be selected in the Articles category to give a new filter.
To add a new Workflow Navigate to Joomla Content > Workflows > Add New item.
Let’s set the name to Custom Workflow. Hit Save & Close to proceed on to creating workflow stages.
Step 5: Create Workflow Stages
Now we need to create the workflow stages. In the planning stage, we have created a workflow that has the following stages:
- Idea
- On Hold
- In Progress
- In Review
- Published
- Trashed
- Unpublished
Depending on your workflow, you’ll have various stages on which the transitions will take place.
To create stages for the workflow, go to Content > Workflow and click on Stages.
Click on New, enter the stage name, and hit Save & Close.
Repeat the process to create the rest of the stages.
Step 6: Create Transitions Actions
Once we have created the stages, we need to add transition actions to connect the stages. Follow the planning diagram to create a flow from one stage to another. Let’s add the following transition action to see how it works.
Transition: To add a new transition, go to Content > Workflow > Transitions. Click on New, and add the following information.
Name: On Hold
Current Stage: Idea
Target Stage: On Hold
Transition Actions: The Transition Actions tab allows you to define what state the item will be in after the transition is complete.
For example, it can be published, unpublished, archived, etc. Set the publishing state according to the transition.
Notification: The transition notifications tab allows you to define whether a notification is sent during that state. For example, if an article has been written but needs to be proofread, you could send an email notification to the editor.
The Usergroups option will allow you to define who will receive the notification. Let’s set it to Editor.
Permissions: Now click the Permissions tab of the Transition. Select the User Group and for the Execute Transition Action, select Allowed from the drop-down. Click Save & Close.
Repeat the process to add the rest of the transitions.
Assign Categories to Articles
Articles can be assigned to categories. They correspond to a certain workflow and can be customized in various ways. To assign a category, go to Content → Categories. Open a category and you will see the workflows tab. From the drop-down menu, you can select the workflow for that category.
You can also set a status, parent category and also restrict the access as well as the permissions.
Final Output
Let’s create an article and have a look at the final outcome of the custom workflow that we’ve just created.
Wrapping Up
This is just one workflow scenario that we have covered today. Similarly, you can create a workflow plan that works for you and implement it. Although, the feature is a bit tricky to wrap your head around. But once you get the hang of it, you can easily manage content development and the publishing process.
What’s your take on the workflow feature, and how are you planning to use it? Let us know in the comments.
