My aim is to create a blog network in the same vein as Streetsblog, Gothamist, Metroblogs, etc., so I need to figure out how to implement a publishing/workflow/editorial process in EE. I know what I want to happen - I just don’t know how to make it happen, technically, or even how it fits into the EE workflow/status model.
I have seen a couple of links, now, for ‘workflow’ and ‘statuses’, but there’s still a lot I need to figure out.
http://expressionengine.com/knowledge_base/article/how_do_i_set_up_an_entry_status_workflow/
http://expressionengine.com/docs/modules/weblog/parameters.html#par_status
Each status has some level/priority, and each status is part of a group, and each blog must have a status group assigned to it, and only super-admins have the ability to put something to ‘open’ (I think). The base statuses are ‘open’ (probably published) and ‘closed’ (probably not published), but what happens when I hit ‘Quick save’, and how does that differ from ‘Submit’? Does a post go to level ‘closed’ or ‘open’ or one of the new statuses I created? I see the statuses have levels - do those buttons just pick the lowest level and then start counting upwards with each successive save or submit?
I see the ‘open’ status level in the database. How difficult is it to change this name to something more meaningful for my operation - say, ‘Published’ or ‘Live’? Is it just a matter of updating that database table and then making sure all my blog templates are keying off ‘published’ instead of ‘open’, or is there a lot of work that would have to happen in the administration interface as well? If I can just change the ‘Open’ in the admin interface to something I like better, that’d be fine for me, too - I’m more concerned about ease of use for newbie bloggers.
Is there a plugin that helps with what might be a standard workflow, say a ‘submit’, which goes to ‘draft’ status, and then an editor can come along and ‘publish’, if appropriate? I might be willing to contract out for a plugin that does what I want [if you might be interested in this work, please drop me a line or a link]. I would like to avoid having to ask any of our bloggers/authors to use the manual ‘Status’ selector on the ‘Options’ tab - I just want the meaning of the buttons to be self-evident (‘Save’, ‘Ready for review’, ‘Publish’, ‘Reject’, etc.), and of course, only certain buttons available to the appropriate permissions/groups.
Is it difficult/impossible to change the buttons in the admin interface to reflect the actual function of whatever those buttons might be doing - say, ‘Approve’ or ‘Publish’ as opposed to ‘Save’?
I’m a little confused that the permissions don’t seem to provide an on/off switch for the standard ‘write a blog post’? It’s somehow there, but it’s only implicit. On the other hand, there are explicit permissions for being able to edit a post, edit comments, delete others’ comments, etc. What am I missing?
I’m curious how the multi-site addon will affect everything, too.
I’m also interested in having notifications sent to the appropriate editor or editor group when a blog author saves a post that is ready to be reviewed, and notifications in the other direction, say, when a post is actually published. Is this difficult to do? Does a plugin exist? I’ve written my own hacks for WordPress.
It seems like the plumbing is there to do what I want to do, I just need to figure out some more specifics.
Thanks for any tips/pointers/links!