Edit approvals
Overview
One or more approvals can be added to a state, or an existing approval edited, using the approvals editor in workflow builder.
The approvals editor lets you add or edit the following for each approval:
Name
Description
Condition(s) for approval to be active
Configure Reviewers and the way they are assigned
Enable the addition of reviewer roles for the assignment of reviewers
Set requirements for reviewer credentials
Customize the approval decision button labels displayed in the workflow state dialog box
Once an approval is added to a state, the approval Approve and Reject transitions can be added and edited using the transitions editor.
Approvals in the workflow builder
A workflow state with one or more approvals added is displayed in the workflow panel with a tick.
Select a state to open the state panel and view the number of approvals in the state.
If approval transitions are added, they are listed in the Transitions.
Choose Approvals to view a list of the added approvals and their names.
An icon can be appended to the approval to indicate how the reviewers are managed. For example, the Approve approval above lets an editor manually assign reviewers using the workflow state dialog box.
A state can have one or more approvals. These can be configured separately, for example, with different reviewers, but, by default, all added approvals must be completed for the Approve or Reject transition to occur.
Add an approval
To add an approval to an existing state, in the state panel:
Choose Approvals or the related + add option
An existing approval can be edited by choosing Approvals and selecting the approval name to open the approvals editor.
You can now configure the approval in the approvals editor:
Add details for the approval
name
description
When the page or blog post is in the workflow state, the approval name and the description are displayed in the workflow state dialog box for users with edit permission.
An Approved or Rejected transition can only be added after at least one approval has been added to the state.
Reviewers
By default, the approval is configured to allow anyone with Confluence view and edit permission for the document to undertake the approval, with a single reviewer decision causing an approval transition.
You can choose to Limit who can approve and/or assign. Additional options are displayed for the selected limitation, and you can configure users who can review, assign, and cannot undertake the review.
You can also mandate the reviewers who must undertake the approval by selecting the Set all reviewers that have to approve option.
A number of Minimum approvals can be set. This is applied for each reviewer option.
You can set the number of reviewer decisions that must be undertaken and agreed upon for an approval transition. For example, when anyone can approve, setting this value to 2 requires at least two reviewers to agree on the decision.
Advanced options
Under the Advanced options, you can
Set the requirement for user credentials to be added before the approval decision buttons are made active
Customize the approval decision action labels displayed in the workflow state dialog box
Set a workflow condition that must be met for the approval to be active
Remember reviewers and add for approvals with the same name in the workflow
Enable the addition of descriptive roles when assigning a reviewer
Credentials
Each approval can be set to require user authentication. This option can be used as part of compliance or security policies.
Open the Advanced dropdown options.
User authentication (or e-signature) for the reviewer can be set to require either:
a password
a username and password
Users will see the credentials prompt in the workflow state dialog box if identity authentication is required for the reviewer.
The Approve and Reject buttons in the workflow state dialog box are disabled until the user credentials are added. The credentials are validated when the user makes an approval decision.
A global administrator can set the default credentials required for approvals in a workflow in the instance.
In the workflow builder, the approval name is appended with a padlock icon to indicate that credentials are required.
Custom action labels
Add text values to customize the approve and reject button options displayed in the workflow state dialog box.
Conditions
Set a workflow condition, such haslabel, that must be met before the approval is active in the workflow state dialog box.
When a condition is added, an option to add a further condition is displayed. All added conditions must be met.
You check Invert for each condition, to make the approval active as long as the condition value is not true.
Remember reviewers
The reviewers assigned to an approval can be stored and automatically assigned to the next occurrence of the current approval. These are sticky reviewers.
Check the Remember reviewers option.
If the workflow returns to the current state, any reviewers who undertook the approval are automatically assigned to the named approval.
When the Remember reviewers option is checked, it also assigns the reviewers from this approval to other approvals with the same name in other states in the workflow.
Enable roles
You can check the Enable Roles option to let an assigner add a reviewer role when assigning a reviewer in the workflow state dialog box.
After a user is selected, the option to add a reviewer role is displayed in the Assign dialog box on the page.
Once added, assignee role names are retained in the workflow and are available in a role dropdown menu for all role-enabled approvals in the workflow.
Assignee roles are displayed as a lozenge in the workflow state dialog box when the assignee views the page.
To add the approval to the current state, choose the Add button in the Add approval editor.
You must at least add a name for the new approval to enable the Add button. When adding multiple approvals to a state, each approval must have a unique name in that state. However, you can use the same approval name in different states.
Who can assign reviewers?
By default, any user with edit permission for the page can assign a user as a reviewer for an assignable approval. You can limit who can assign reviewers when the reviewer option is set as one of the following:
Users can be assigned through UI
Users must be assigned to approve
Only one user must be assigned to approve
Add one or more values to the following options to limit who can assign reviewers:
Users who can assign reviewers
Groups who can assign reviewers
The added values for who can assign are retained if the assignable option is changed.
Check Invert for each option to prevent added users or members of the added groups from assigning reviewers.
Related pages
Need support? Create a request with our support team.