Hiding documents until approved in the workflow

Document versions can be hidden that have not been marked as approved in a workflow. The document is automatically hidden upon the addition of the document or creation of a new version from any user not participating or observing in a workflow until that document version is approved. Once the document has been approved, the document is available to those users who have permission to the document. If the document is not approved, then the document version remains hidden. If a file needs to have its distribution restricted until it has gone through some form of approval process, then there are options to hide the document until it has been approved. This allows a given version of a document to be hidden from all users except for the document owner, workflow participants, workflow observers and administrators until such time as it is signed off as “Approved”. If the file is approved the document reappears in the folder and is marked as approved.

By default, any version of a document that has been approved can be viewed in the version history. This can be restricted to only displaying the currently approved version using the setting Library.HideAllButLatestApproved in the Library Manager web config file <appSettings> section to “true”. The default setting is “false”. For example, <add key="Library.HideAllButLatestApproved" value="true">.

If the workflow is not approved, a new version must be created before another attempt is made to have it approved via a new workflow instance.

Users can find the "hide this document" setting in 3 locations:

1. The document schema level. This restricts all versions of the document until it has been approved.

2. The workflow template level. This restricts only the current version of the document until it has been approved.

3. The workflow instance level. The same restrictions as the workflow template level if allowed to be modified by the workflow initiator.

Setting the "Hide this Document..." at the workflow template level

If the "Hide the document version until the workflow is approved" check box in the workflow template is selected, then the document version is hidden only during the workflow process until the document version is approved. The document is available at all other times whether it has been approved or not.

While the document is under the workflow process, any previous versions of the document is visible to users but will display a "!" icon on the document indicating that a more current version of a document is under workflow . Any participants or observers of the workflow will see an "H" icon on the document indicating that version it is hidden to other users.

Once the document has been approved, rejected, or the workflow is completed, canceled or overridden the document is available to those users who have permission to the document.

This setting is found in the Workflow > Templates > Workflow templates area.

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Setting the "Hide all Versions..." at the document schema level

If the "Hide all version of document in this schema until the document is approved..." check box at the schema level is selected, then any versions of the document that have not been approved will be hidden. The document is automatically hidden upon the addition of the document or creation of a new version from any user not participating or observing in a workflow until that document version is approved. Any previous versions that have been approved is visible to users but will display a "!" icon on the document indicating that a more current version of a document is under workflow  . Any participants or observers of the workflow will see an "H" icon on the document indicating that version it is hidden to other users.

Once the document has been approved, the document is available to those users who have permission to the document. If the document is not approved, then the document version remains hidden. If the workflow is not approved, a new version of the document must be created before you can initiate a new workflow instance.

This setting is found in the Document Schema > Workflow Template > Workflow Settings area.

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Setting the "Hide this Document..." when initiating a workflow Instance

Users can set the hide this document command when they initiate a workflow as long as the template designer has set the workflow configuration to allow it in the ad-hoc workflow template. This feature works the same as setting the "Hide all versions..." at the workflow template level.

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