Plone Workflow

One of Plone's many strengths is the workflow component. Workflow fits into one of the core themes of content management, which is the separation of logic, content, and presentation.

Workflow is a chain of actions or events that occurs on something to achieve an objective.

Plone's workflow tool provides certain features and limitations that are key to understanding workflow in Plone.

A good workflow shows that the software understands how real people do their job. It supports the fact the even simple jobs, like publishing a document, involves a group of people that have different roles and responsibilities.

The default Plone workflow has just 4 states and involves 2 roles. A documents starts out as visible. The owner of the document submits the document, changing its state to pending. If a user with the reviewer role logs in, all the documents that are pending appears on his review list. The reviewer can then either reject it, which moves it back to the visible state, or publish the document, which leaves it in the published state.