Publishing workflow

eZ publish comes with an integrated workflow mechanism that makes it possible to perform different tasks with or without user interaction. The workflow implementation is based on the following components:

• Events
• Workflows
• Workflow groups
• Triggers

The following illustration shows the relations between the elements in the list above.

Anevent is the smallest entity of the workflow system, it carries out a specific task. eZ publish comes with a collection of events that cover the needs of typical everyday tasks.

It is possible to extend the system by creating custom events for special needs. Custom workflow events have to be programmed in PHP. Most used events are;

• Approval
• Delayed publishing or unpublishing at fixed date.

A workflow is a collection of events. In other words, it defines an ordered sequence of actions that will be executed when the workflow is running. A workflow is initiated by a trigger . Although a trigger is only capable of initiating a single workflow, several other workflows can be started through the built-in multiplexer event. A trigger is associated with a function of a module. Most used triggers are;

• Before publish (for pre approval)
• Past publish (for post processing)
• Before read (for disclaimer access)

eZ publish allow to built with out of the box functionalities approval workflows with:

• Multi steps approval and notification
• Majority approval (3 approvers out of a group of 5 must approve)
• On the spot workflow modification allow an approver to add an extra step of validation in an ongoing workflow