Cross posted from http://rjsteinert.com/content/notes-workbench-managing-content-managemen...
I wasn't actually at this presentation but I am studying this module as I consider what my ideal workflow/state-machine module might look like. Check out the presentation here http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/workbench-managing-content-manage...
Demo 1 - "My Content" page for content management relevant to the user
"Obscures Drupal" so users don't have to learn how to use Drupal, they just see the content they are in charge of managing. This is similar to the Jen Lampton's Total Control Admin Dashboard module but from the screenshots but Workbench's "My Content" tab is user specific as opposed to a broad overview for administrators of the site.
Demo 2 - Hierarchical editorial groups
This is similar to what we've been tring to accomplish with subgroups. Because subgroups has never been proven (as far as I know, anyone using it with OG Spaces module?) we've had to rely on a flat group structure that does not allow us to represent hierarchical group structures. One of the reason we've needed such a sructure is not only to show users what the hierarchy of managed groups on users/content are, but to allow cascading permissions on content and also allow users to see content aggregated to the level in hierarchy in which they are viewing. For example, if a user has access to content in child group, user has access to content in parent group. I'm not sure if this kind of cascading permissions is possible with the Workbench Access module but it sounds like it does.
Demo 3 - over communicates so user is constantly aware of what they can do
Tells users what permissions they have on the current, page what section they are in, and also exposes a Moderate: [state] (Apply) form on nodes. The last piece of funtionality there is similar to the Workflow Extensions module's you can expose a block on a Node page that allows you to change the state of a node.
Demo 4 - revision/state management tabs
New node tabs -> "View published", "View Draft", "Edit Draft", "Moderate"
Looks like the View Draft and Edit Draft tab refer to the node revision before the workflow state was changed to "Publish".
The moderate tab shows the state transitions for the node:
Technical overview
Could be seen as "a fork of Content Moderation module". Menu Node Edit, formerly used for using managing structures and there will be an upgrade path.
"We might have to install 8 or 9 different modules that had 8 or 9 UI concepts or sometimes used different terminology to talk about the same thing. The training and support level was unbearable for both ourselves and our clients."
-Ken Richard
I can definitely relate to this (7 modules all hacked together for the "workflow feature" on the D4D Camp Boston 2011 site) and consider functionality so important worth placing in one project.
Roadmap
-
Moderation rules by content type
Can't define work states and rules per content type. -
Edit default states
Like workflow's forced creation state, it's not really needed. -
Scheduled state transitions
Scheduler module integrates but a 2% edge case that needs fixing. -
Non-linear approval workflow
Allow asynchonous review processes. When content that requires 2 different departments for approval, this allows the two departments to give their approval at seperate times instead of in a linear workflows like [department 1 approval] -> [department 2 approval] -> [published].
Where they are headed
- Installation profile coming.
- notifications coming
- move towards asset management