Workflow stages

Workflow stages are the building blocks of a workflow. Create at least one stage before we can create a workflow.

Workflow stages

Stages determine:

• What actions to execute when entering or exiting a workflow stage

• The access levels of users or groups withis that stage.

In most cases, actions are run when entering a stage.

For example, we add a scheduled move action to run on entering a stage so that it is enabled as soon as an item enterm that stage. However, if you set a scheduled move action to run on leaving a stage, it will never run. The most common type of actions to run on leaving a stage are email actions, when to notify users that an item has exited a workflow stage, or custom workflow actions that have been designed to run a task when an item leaves a stage.

Some actions need to be run in a specific order.

For example:

• A scheduled move action must always be the final action in a workflow stage, because any actions scheduled after a scheduled move action will not be run.

• We cannot run a version action before a publish action because we cannot save versions of draft items.

• If using a custom action, you may want to run the custom action before executing an email action so that the draft content item is in a state ready to be reviewed by an approver.

The access settingdefined in the properties section of the workflow stage form are the security settings applied to items during a workflow, not the Security section of a workflow stage. The Security section only defines who has access to the workflow stage item itself.

Reject stages

In addition to the workflow stages that make up a workflow, there are also workflow stages used as part of rejecting an item. When an item is rejected, a reject stage can be triggered that executes pre-defined actions. Once the actions have been executed, the item is returned to the first stage of the workflow.

Parent: Workflow stages and actions
Related:
Workflow actions
Access Items during a workflow
Joint approval
Workflow example