This exercise will demonstrate how content can be moved through the Content Moderation statuses.
In the Admin menu, click on Content, then click on the secondary tab Moderated Content.
Choose a content item in the list that requires moderation. For example you could choose to edit the Standard page called Autem which is in the state of Draft as highlighted in the screenshot below.
Click on the Edit button at the right hand side of the page.
Make some changes to the content (e.g. delete some text or add text).
Save the content, leaving it in the "Draft" status (notice that you’re redirected to the Moderated Content page and that the content page you were just editing is now at the top of the list).
Select the content item you just edited and click Edit again.
Select “Needs Review" from the Change to: dropdown and click Save.
Edit the same content item again.
Select “Published" from the Change to: dropdown and click Save.
Note Moving content through the workflow process from Draft to Published usually involves multiple people. However, if your account has full permissions, you can move content through the states and publish changes immediately.
A content moderation workflow allows content to go through an approval process before it’s posted live on a website. This means that content can be authored by one person and reviewed by another before it is approved. Only once approved is the content made visible to the public (site visitors).
Content moderation is a GovCMS tool (module) that provides a default workflow process. In this model:
Content has four "states":
Draft
Needs Review
Published
Archived
Content transitions as it moves from one state to another.
Different people or different roles have different permissions regarding what actions they can perform in the content workflow. For example, in the default setting, Content Editors cannot publish content. Only a Content Approver can approve content.
The screenshot below summarises the default GovCMS workflow:
This default workflow can also be extended by a site builder/developer.
You can publish content using the content editing form. To see the states availale for a piece of content (and for your given role) navigate to Content by clicking on the Content button in the Admin menu. Then click on a piece of content to edit it.
The workflow "states" available will depend on:
The current content state.
The transitions you’re permitted to use within your official content role.
In the example below, the content was authored by a Content author. The current user is a Content Approver and the Page content is in the state of Needs Review. The Content Approver can select from two options in the Change to dropdown:
Published. This would make the content visible to site visitors.
Draft. Usually this would then require the Content author to make further changes to the page before again submitting it for review by changing the state to Needs Review.
Note While the Content approver is reviewing the page, they are in Edit mode, and so may make their own changes to the page before publishing.
The GovCMS content moderation module also provides a customisable dashboard. To access the Content moderation dashboard click on the Content button in the Admin menu to navigate to the main Content Administration page. Then click on the Moderated content tab highlighted in the screenshot below.
Once in the Content moderation dashboard you will see a list of content that is in different states. In the example below we see there are 4 items in Draft and one item in Needs Review. A Content Approver could use this list to see what items are ready for them to review.
