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Workspace example scenario: Regular maintenance
The following scenario is an example of a workspace, task group, and task lifecycle for regular maintenance for the store. In this scenario, some product descriptions are being changed, and some new merchandising information is being added for products in the store.
All of these changes can be committed to the production-ready data as soon as they are ready and the Product Manager has approved the changes.
This scenario assumes that workspaces are already enabled, as workspaces must be enabled when the authoring server instance is created.
To complete the regular maintenance:
- 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 Workspace Manager creates a new workspace
Because regular maintenance is an ongoing issue for a site, the workspace manager creates a new, persistent workspace, if a workspace for regular maintenance does already exist. This keeps all regular maintenance in one place and keeps the regular maintenance workspace available even if there are no new or active task groups in the workspace.
Use one workspace for regular maintenance also keeps information about the maintenance in one location, so you can go back into the Workspace Administration Tool and view a history of the regular maintenance.
The Workspace Manager creates a new task group
Although changing product descriptions and adding new merchandising information seem unrelated, the Workspace Manager creates one new single-use task group for these tasks because there is one approver for both tasks and the Workspace Manager wants to commit these changes to the production-ready data at the same time.
The task group is single-use because the Workspace Manger does not think this specific task group will recur as part of regular store maintenance.
The Workspace Manager creates new tasks
The Workspace Manager creates two tasks:
- Change product descriptions
- Add new merchandising information
Each task is assigned to a different Workspace Content Contributor.
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 Contributors can work on their tasks.
An e-mail message is sent to the Workspace Content Contributors.
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 either the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator or the Management Center, select their tasks and work on them.
The Workspace Content Contributors test their changes
While working on their tasks, Workspace Content Contributors can test their changes using the Preview function available in either the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator or the Management Center.
The Workspace Content Contributors mark 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 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 they are correct. Before granting approval, the Task Group Approver reviews the changes made and confirms 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 either the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator or the Management Center.
When the task group is approved, the changes in the task group are committed to the production-ready data.