Editorial Workflow in Umbraco

Not every user in a CMS should have the same access to the system, and providing a editorial workflow enables a two-step process to ensure quality control by requiring approval of content changes prior to publication.

Out of the box, Umbraco provides three levels of Editorial permissions:

• Writers - who can save content but not publish content; and
• Editors and Administrators - who have full permissions to publish content.

So when an editorial workflow is required to restrict publication rights, assign Editor rights only to those users who should publish content.

By default every Editor can publish every type of page.

A comprehensive workflow solution can be achieved by using Umbraco notifications, which enables Editors to subscribe to Send to Publish events on pages. When a Writer then sends a page to publish, an email notification will be sent to all subscribed Editors with links to approve or reject the publication or amend the content prior to publication.

More nuanced workflows can also be achieved, by using page or section level permissions on a User by User basis, e.g. restricting all Writers to Save and Send to Publish on some parts of the site, and enable Publish rights in other parts of the site. Also a combination of restricted Publish rights and targeted notifications can enable Editors to approve Publication only within their own area of the site.