A Merchandising project associates a workflow with a set of assets. The workflow specifies the number and sequence of tasks that determine the project’s life cycle.
Tasks such as the following are part of a typical workflow:
Create an asset, revise asset content, or delete an asset
Review new or changed content
Approve the project for deployment
Accept the deployment
The workflow also specifies whether to deploy only to a production target, or to a staging target as well. See Processes and Projects in the ATG Content Administration Programming Guide. The chapter Setting Up Deployment in the same manual contains instructions to define the deployment topology.
Workflow Security
The administrator can set access rights on a workflow and on its individual task elements. For information about this configuration, see the Managing User Access and Security and Project Workflows chapters in the ATG Content Administration Programming Guide.
Customizing Workflows
By default, Merchandising projects use the common workflow that is found in:
<ATG10dir>/Publishing/base/config/atg/registry/data/epubworkflows/Common/
commonWorkflow.wdl
The business requirements at your site may require a custom workflow, with additional steps such as an email notification or an extra authorization step.
If you need to create a custom workflow, consider these cautions:
It is preferable to copy an existing workflow and modify the copy than to create a completely new workflow.
Adhere as closely as possible to the original workflow, especially with respect to the elements that handle deployment and check-in.
Do not change the check-in model on a workflow. Asset check-in prior to project deployment (“early check-in”) is no longer supported. Assets are checked in immediately after a project is deployed and the deployment is verified/accepted (“late check-in”).
Important: All the workflows in use must use the same deployment model:
Production-only
Staging and production
For information about the workflows that are included with ATG Content Administration, see the Project Workflows chapter of the ATG Content Administration Programming Guide. In the same manual, the section Workflow Action Elements contains a list of workflow action elements.
The ACC provides the user interface for viewing, editing, and creating workflows. The application developer must create the custom workflow elements for your organization. For more information, see the following:
Using Workflows in the ATG Personalization Guide for Business Users
Creating and Configuring Workflows in the ATG Personalization Programming Guide
For information about modifying the user interface to accommodate workflow display, see Customizing the UI for Specific Tasks and Activities in the ATG Business Control Center Administration and Development Guide.
