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 moves the document 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.

Change the state of a document

Click the check box next to a document.
To move the document to the next state in the workflow, select Workflow > Next from the action menu, and click OK when prompted to confirm the change.
To move a document to the previous state in the workflow, select Workflow > Previous from the action menu.

Mark a document as final (place document in final status)

Click the check box next to a document.
From the action menu, select Workflow > Set final status.
Click OK to confirm the change.

The document is marked as Final and the document's icon is changed to indicate that.

Note: If you ever need to remove final status from a document (take a document out of final status), just click the check box next to a document that is marked as Final, then select Workflow > Unset final status from the action menu and click OK when prompted to confirm the change. The document moves back to its normal status and the document's original icon returns.

Using workflow rules

Workflow rules are used to define what should happen to a document in a particular workflow state when a specific operation is selected on the action menu when a document is selected.

Normally, if a workflow is assigned to a folder, users can change the state of a document as needed by clicking the check box next to a document and then selecting the standard Workflow > Next and Workflow > Previous options from the action menu. When workflow rules are in place, the standard Next and Previous options are disabled, and instead the user has new options or operations to select from on the action menu. The selected operation triggers a rule, which is a defined set of actions configured to run in a specific, sequential order. As a simple example, when a document is in a particular state in a particular workflow, the 'Revise' operation might be configured to 'place this document in a specific state of the workflow' AND 'create a new version'.

Note for admins: Workflow rules are configured by the administrator using ProjectWise Administrator. To be able to use workflow rules in ProjectWise Web, server-side processing must be enabled for the Rules Engine in ProjectWise Administrator, the version of the ProjectWise Integration Server must be CONNECT Edition Update 3.2 or later, and the version of the ProjectWise Plug-in for WSG must be CONNECT Edition Update 3.2 or later.