ProjectWise Explorer Help

Working with Workflows and States

A workflow is an ordered group of milestones called states, through which a document passes on its way to completion. Workflows are created in ProjectWise Administrator and can be assigned to folders and work areas as needed in ProjectWise Explorer. Access control security settings can be applied to a workflow, and to each state in a workflow, so that only certain users have access to a document when it is in a particular state.

When a workflow is first assigned to a folder or work area, the documents in that folder or work area are placed in the first state of the workflow. When a document completes its first milestone, the user working on the document sends it to the next state in the workflow. Users with access to that next state can then begin working on the document. The process continues until the document passes through all states in the workflow and is considered to be finished. Users with appropriate permissions and user settings can then mark the document as Final (also referred to placing the document in final status) to indicate that the document has reached the end of the workflow. Documents that are marked as Final are read-only, to prevent anyone, regardless of permissions, from further modifying the document. Users with appropriate permissions can also remove final status from a document if needed.

Note: While Final is technically a document state, it is not a state that the administrator needs to create, and it is not a state that exists in any workflow, rather it is a state that exists outside all workflows.

To change a document's state, your user setting Document > Can change state must be on, and both your Write and Change Workflow State permissions must be on for that document.

To set final status on a document, your user setting Document > Can set final status must be on, and your Change Workflow State permission must be on for that document. To remove final status, your user setting Document > Can remove final status must be on, and your Change Workflow State permission must be on for that document.

Tip: Documents at the root of a folder or work area must share the same workflow, but they can be in different states of the workflow. The folder state is considered to be the lowest state in the assigned workflow in which at least one document still exists. To change a document's workflow, you must change the workflow of the parent folder or work area.
Note: Changing a document's state may result in an email notification being sent to designated users, if the workflow has a workflow messaging agent assigned to it in ProjectWise Administrator.