Workspace example scenario: Emergency fixes
The following scenario is an example of a workspace, task group, and task lifecycle for emergency fixes. In this scenario, wrong information about several products is appearing in a store on the production server. The product information must be corrected as quickly as possible on the production server. The changes require the approval of one person, the Product Manager.
This scenario assumes that workspaces are already enabled, as workspaces must be enabled when the authoring server instance is created. The quick publish target has also been set correctly
To complete the emergency fix:
- The Workspace Manager creates a new workspace.
- The Workspace Manager creates a new task group.
- The Workspace Manager creates new tasks.
- The Workspace Manager activates the new task group.
- The Workspace Content Contributors work on their tasks.
- The Workspace Content Contributors test their changes.
- The Workspace Content Contributors mark their tasks as complete.
- The Task Group Approver approves the completed task group.
- The changes from the task group are quick published.
The Workspace Manager creates a new workspace
Because emergency fixes are probably an ongoing issue for a site, the workspace manager creates a new, persistent workspace. This keeps the emergency fix workspace available even if there are no new or active task groups in the workspace.
The Workspace Manager marks the workspace as an emergency fix workspace. This allows people in the workspace to override the set workspaces locking policy and fix managed assets even if they are locked.
Use one workspace for emergency fixes also keeps information about the fixes in one location, so you can go back into the Workspace Administration Tool and view a history of emergency fixes.
The Workspace Manager creates a new quick publish task group
Because these are emergency fixes, they need to be committed to the production-ready data and published to the production server as soon as possible, the Workspace Manager creates one new, single-use, quick publish task group. The Workspace Manager adds the Product Manager as the approver for the task group.
By selecting the quick publish option when creating a new task group, the Workspace Manager ensures that both the commit to production-ready data and the publish to the production server will happen as soon as possible after the task group is approved.
The task group is single-use because the task group is specifically for this emergency fix and does not need to recur.
If this emergency fix is similar to a previous fix, the Workspace Manager might have a task group template available and instead of creating a new task group, the Workspace Manager creates the task group from a template. The Workspace Manager can also save the task group as a template to use when creating task groups later.
The Workspace Manager creates new tasks
The emergency fix can be done by one person, so the workspace manager creates one task for all the work required for the emergency fix.
If this emergency fix task is similar to a previous fix, the Workspace Manager might have a task template available and instead of creating a new task, the Workspace Manager creates the task from a template. The Workspace Manager can also save the new tasks as templates to use when creating tasks later.
The Workspace Manager activates the new task group
Now that the Workspace Manager has the workspace, task group, and task in place, the Workspace Manager activates the task group so that the Workspace Content Contributor can work on the task.
An e-mail message is sent to the Workspace Content Contributor.
The Workspace Content Contributors work on their tasks
After receiving e-mail notification that their tasks have been activated, Workspace Content Contributors log on to WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, select their tasks, and work on them.
The Workspace Content Contributor tests their changes
While working on their tasks, Workspace Content Contributors can test their changes using the Preview function available in WebSphere Commerce Accelerator.
The Workspace Content Contributors marks their tasks as complete
When Workspace Content Contributors have finished all the work required to finish their assigned tasks and they have tested their changes, they mark their tasks as complete.
When all tasks are completed, an approval task is generated and assigned to the Workspace Task Group Approver.
The Workspace Task Group Approver approves the completed task group
The Task Group Approver receives an e-mail indicating that the task group is ready for approval.
Before granting approval, the Task Group Approver reviews the changes made and confirms that they are correct. The Task Group Approver uses the store preview function to check the store.
When the Task Group Approver is satisfied that the changes are correct, the Task Group Approver approves the changes in WebSphere Commerce Accelerator.
The changes from the task group are quick published
After the task group is approved, the task group data is committed to the production-ready data. When the commit is completes, the task group data is published to the production server.
Related Concepts
Workspaces, task groups, and tasks
Store previewRelated tasks
Enabling Workspaces
Create a workspace
Create a task group
Create a task
Activating a task group
Previewing a store
Marking a workspace task as complete (Workspace Content Contributor)
Approving or rejecting a workspace task group (Workspace Task Group Approver)