Manage workflows
Use workflows in Optimizely Content Marketing Platform (CMP) to configure processes for your team’s collaboration, approval, and publishing requirements for types of tasks, content formats, and other use cases. Custom workflows are for teams with more complex content collaboration requirements, such as working with an editorial team or an agency that may require a mandatory approval step before publishing content.
Note
Workflows are accessible only to account administrators. If you need to be an administrator, contact another administrator or Optimizely Support.
Create a workflow
- Go to your avatar > Workflows.
- Click More (...) > Edit to edit existing workflows, or click Create Workflow to add a workflow. The workflow configuration window displays.
- Enter the Workflow Title.
- (Optional) Add a description.
- Toggle on Smart duration to automatically adjust multiple due dates in subsequent steps if a user completes a step ahead of or later than its due date. It also adjusts the task due dates if the previous step was completed or skipped on a different date than its assigned date. Activating smart duration for an existing workflow only impacts tasks that you create with that workflow.
- Toggle on Asset approval with brand compliance to ensure that the assets you upload comply with the brand guidelines you import. See Compliance checker overview for information.
- Click Save.
Add steps
- Click the Steps tab.
- Choose which settings (if any) to apply:
- Fixed – Prevent users from making changes to the workflow. Only assigned users can complete their steps. You can only make changes to the workflow in settings. In a fixed workflow, a user with Edit access can set an assignee only while a step is unassigned. Reassigning a step that already has an assignee is an Admin-only action. To reassign a step, an Admin edits the workflow in its settings. This restriction is by design and preserves the governance of a fixed workflow.
- Enable Fields on Steps – Use fields in the calendar view to search and filter tasks for steps.
- Enable Step Field Edit within Task – Let anyone with task edit permissions edit step fields. Admins have edit permissions by default.
- Click Add Step to add a step to your workflow.
- Enter a title for the step.
- Click Add assignee if you have a predetermined user or team for the step. Steps are unassigned by default.
- Click More (...) to reveal more options.
- Insert step – Add a step between two steps.
- Convert to External Step – Integrate external systems with the workflow.
- Delete – Delete the step.
- Expand a step by clicking on it to enter optional details.
- Description – Description for the step.
- Duration – Automatically set due dates for the tasks your team creates with this workflow, which CMP applies during task creation. This is optional, but if you set one, you must set a duration for each step in the workflow.
- Save assets to the Library on step completion – Save any content you add to the task to the library. See Content workspace for information on selecting assets to push to the library from within a task.
- Select actions for this step – Select what workflow actions to apply. See Apply actions.
- Click Add Sub-Step to add multiple sub-steps for users or teams, and complete in any order when the parent step is the current step.
- Click Save.
Apply actions
CMP Workflow Actions are designed for highly governed organizations that require step-level permission control in fixed and uneditable workflows. This lets administrators assign users to a step and provide permissions for relevant functionality without giving edit access to the full task. In such workflows, assigned users can perform only the specific actions listed within the steps assigned to them. Task owners (non-Admins) cannot reassign or modify steps in fixed workflows.
Note
This legacy feature is no longer the recommended approach because it causes delays and blocks users from carrying out their tasks in async.
You can set the following actions:
- Find Content – Gives access to search the library and marketplace for content. Assigning users to a step with this action lets them access the Library and Marketplace to find content with the Task Content tab.
- Write/Edit Content – Gives access to the Content Editor to write or edit content. This option shows in a Task as Write Content. When this is activated, the user sees an option to Edit Content.
- Write/Edit Share – Gives access to write or edit in the social share widgets. This option shows in a Task as Write Your Share, and the Edit icon on the Social Share Widgets is available to the assigned user.
- Select Image – Gives access to search the library or marketplace for content. This is similar to the Find Content permission.
- Approve – Gives access to approve the article. This changes the Status options available for the step.
- Set Publish Destination – Gives access to set and add a publish destination, including Feeds and Social Channels. This is available within Task > Publishing as Add Channel. A user cannot mark this step as Complete without a Publishing Destination.
- Set Publish Date – Gives access to alter the Publish Date within the Publishing widgets to the assigned user. If the date is left unaltered, CMP publishes the content when the task is completed.
- Publish/Share – Gives access to publish the content or share it on social media. When you use this action, the Workflow must have this as the last step with no other Publish to Library actions on any preceding step. This lets the assignee publish content to the Publishing Destination by completing this step (if the scheduled date is different from the Task Completion Date, then this is published at the scheduled date).
- Edit Fields – Gives the assigned user access to update fields on the Fields tab. If mandatory fields exist, then this step cannot be completed without filling them in.
Users can perform only the specific actions listed within the steps assigned to them. If you need more than one person to review and edit content, select Write or edit content in multiple steps.
Add fields
You can add a field to a workflow to make the specific field visible on the Fields tab in a task that uses this workflow. You can select multiple fields to apply to your workflow and click Add. Drag and drop the fields into your desired order.
Mandatory fields ensure your team tags every task at the right time during the task lifecycle. Click More (...) and toggle on Mandatory to apply mandatory fields. Label fields offer an additional option when you select Mandatory. You can make labels mandatory At Task Creation or At Task Completion. See Add fields to steps in a workflow for information.
Add content
Click Select Content Types to search for and select the content types you want to add to the workflow.
Library
Choose to save modified existing assets as a New Asset or New Version in the library. New Version overwrites the current library asset with a newer version. New Asset creates a new file in the library.
You can also select to Automatically push all related related assets to library when task is completed and Add assets to library without Public URL. See Steps and Content workspace.
Publishing
Click Add Channel and Block Channel to search for and select channels. When you use a workflow, the publishing channels you add automatically populate in the corresponding task. The channels you select from Block Channel do not display as options when you publish.
After you configure your workflow, click Save.
Delete a workflow
- Go to your avatar > Workflows.
- Click More (...) for the workflow and click Delete.
Bulk delete a workflow step with its substeps
- Go to the workflow step.
- Click the Delete icon.
If a substep is assigned to another user, a warning message displays for you to confirm deletion. Click Yes, Delete to delete the substeps.
Change task status
You can update the status of a task in the List View.
- Go to Plan and see the List View.
- Click on the Status of a task to change it.
- In Progress – Change to Complete, Archive, or Place on Hold.
- Completed – Change to Undo Complete or Archive.
- Archived – Change to Unarchived.
- On Hold – Change to Resume From On Hold.
- Overdue – Change to Archive or Place on Hold. Complete is not an option when the workflow is not flexible.
If the workflow has incomplete required fields, CMP gives you an error if you try to change the task status to complete. Complete the required fields then try again.