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Operation of the Publishing Workflow System

A central goal of Sundial is to provide maximum exposure of events to all appropriate target audiences. Through Sundial's Publishing Workflow System (PWS), it is possible to establish pathways between target audiences so as to publish events far and wide in an automated manner.

Information Pathways

Sundial's Publishing Workflow System works off of rule-based information pathways established between target audiences. An information pathway between a source audience and a destination audience establishes a relationship between the audiences. When an information pathway exists, the source audience forwards events and the publishing decisions it has made from its publishing queue to the publishing queue of the destination audience. Publishing workflow rules defined for the information pathway specify how the destination audience's publishing queue will work with the information it receives.

A target audience may source events from several source target audiences. Each relationship may be defined by a different set of workflow publishing rules. Larger information pathways connecting target audiences to one another via intermediary audiences can also be established so as to mirror the information flows and information approval workflows of a given organization. The one restriction in building information pathways between audiences is that a cycle may not result (e.g. A forwards to B and B forwards to A).

 

All information pathways that stem from a given target audience are referred to as a chain. For example, in the graphic above, target audiences B,C, and D chain from target audience A by virtue of the information pathways established between the audiences. Audiences B,C, and D are downstream from Audience A.

Publishing Workflow Rules

The flow of event information and publishing decisions between two audiences is defined by a set of publishing workflow rules that specify for each possible publishing decision made by a source target audience what consequential action should occur with respect to the destination target audience.

Publishing workflow rules define for the publishing workflow system the following:

  • when a source target audience should forward an event or publication decision on to a destination target audience
  • the initial publication status that should be set for the event when received by the destination target audience's publishing queue
  • how the publication status of the event should change within a target audience's publishing queue as it changes with respect to the source target audience's publishing queue

Publishing wokflow rules rules are expressed as reactions triggered by the change of a publishing decision. The table that follows present the possible actions the publishing workflow system can take in response to the change of a publishing decision:

When the following publishing
decision is made for the source target audience...		 the publishing workflow
system will do as follows:
On Suggestion
  • Nothing
  • Forward the event to the destination target audience (if necessary) and set the event's status to pending.
  • Forward the event to the destination target audience (if necessary) and set the event's status to enqueued.
On Enqueuing
  • Nothing
  • Forward the event to the destination target audience (if necessary) and set the event's status to one of the following publication statuses:
    • pending.
    • enqueued
    • approved
    • conditionally approved
On Approval
  • Nothing
  • Forward the event to the destination target audience (if necessary) and set the event's status to one of the following publication statuses:
    • pending.
    • enqueued
    • approved
    • conditionally approved
On Conditional Approval
  • Nothing
  • Forward the event to the destination target audience (if necessary) and set the event's status to one of the following publication statuses:
    • pending.
    • enqueued
    • approved
    • conditionally approved
On Decline
  • Nothing
  • Forward the event to the destination target audience (if necessary) and set the event's status to enqueued
  • If the event exists within the the destination target audience's publishing queue, decline/retract the event from publication to that audience.
On Retraction
  • If the event exists within the the destination target audience's publishing queue, decline/retract the event from publication to that audience.

When an information pathway is established between two audiences, Sundial's default publishing workflow rules are applied to the relationship.

Default Sundial Publishing Workflow Rules
On Suggestion
 Do Nothing
On Enqueuing
 Suggest
On Approval
 Suggest
On Conditional Approval
 Suggest
On Decline
 Decline/Retract
On Retraction
 Decline/Retract*

Operation of the Publishing Workflow System

The Publishing Workflow System (PWS) is initiated when an event's publication status is set or changed. An event's publication status with respect to a target audience can be set or changed by the following:

  • a publication decision made by a Sundial user holding the approver role for a target audience, or
  • the publishing workflow system on the basis of publishing workflow rules established between two audiences when initiated by a change in the publication status of an event.

When the publication status of an event is changed within an audience's publishing queue, the Publishing Workflow System is initiated. The Publishing Workflow System forwards the event and/or publishing decision to all destination target audiences of the affected source audience.

The workflow system then evaluates the implications of the publishing decision with respect to the destination target audiences according to the publishing workflow rules that define the information pathway that exists between the two audiences. If the publishing status of an event with respect to a destination target audience is changed, the publishing workflow system then evaluates the change's implications upon further target audiences.

In short, a cascading set of publishing decisions is brought about by the Publishing Workflow System in response to an initiating publishing decision.

Precedence of Publishing Decisions

Publishing decisions are weighted along a spectrum of more conservative to more liberal with respect to the publication of event information as per the above graphic.

When the Publishing Workflow System evaluates what it should do with respect to a given audience, it first determines whether the event exists within the audience's publishing queue. If so, it then checks the publication status of the event within the audience's queue. If the workflow rule to be effected specifies a more conservative publication status than that which is presently assigned to the event, the event's publishing status is not changed and the Publishing Workflow System halts. No target audiences downstream of the unchanged audience are evaluated as no change has been made.

Event Retraction

When an event is retracted from a target audience, the event is removed from the target audience's publishing queue. If the event was published, it is removed from publication.

An event is retracted from publication to a select chain of audiences when an audience's approver elects to retract an event from publication to an audience. The Publishing Workflow System retracts the event from all audiences downstream of the audience for which the approver retracted the event.

An event is retracted from publication to all audiences when an event is deleted from Sundial.

Conflict Resolution

It is often the case that there are multiple information pathways forwarding information to a target audience. When the Publishing Workflow System is evaluating the action it should take with respect to an event's publication status within an audience's queue, it first determines all actions suggested by its incoming information pathways.

The Publishing Workflow System selects from amongst the suggested actions using the conflict resolution strategy set for the affected target audience. The conflict resolution strategies that may be set for a given audience include the following:

Publishing Workflow
Conflict Resolution Strategies
Conservative
  • Of the suggested actions, select the most conservative publication status.
  • If the event is not yet within the audience's publishing queue, insert it and set its publication status to the selected publication status. PWS will evaluate the impact of this action upon outgoing information pathways.
  • If the event is within the audience's publishing queue, determine whether the its publication status is less liberal than the publication status selected.
    • If so, set the this publishing status of the event to the more liberal. PWS will evaluates the impact of this action upon outgoing information pathways.
    • If not, do not modify the publication status of the event.
Always Suggest /
Do Nothing /
  • If the event is not yet within the audience's publishing queue, place it within the queue and set its status to "suggested" for evaluation by an approver.
  • If the event is within the audience's publishing queue, do nothing.
Liberal
  • Of the suggested actions, select the most liberal publishing status.
  • If the event is not yet within the audience's publishing queue, insert it and set its publication status to the selected publishing status. PWS will evaluates the impact of this action upon outgoing information pathways.
  • If the event is within the audience's publishing queue, determine whether the its publication status is less liberal than the publication status selected.
    • If so, set the this publishing status of the event to the more liberal. PWS will evaluates the impact of this action upon outgoing information pathways.
    • If not, do not modify the publication status of the event.

Freezing & Unfreezing of Decisions

If an approver does not want a publication status to be changed by the Publishing Workflow System, they may elect to freeze a publishing decision. When the PWS comes upon a frozen decision, it halts its evaluation of the impact of an upstream decision upon that audience and its downstream audiences.

At any time a target audience's approver may unfreeze an event's publication decision to allow the Publishing Workflow System to modify its publishing status as per the worfklow rules of the audience's incoming information pathways.

Regardless of whether a publication decision is frozen for an audience, should a upstream event retraction occur, the event will be retracted for the audience with the frozen decision and its downstream audiences.

Initial Inheritance of Publication Dates

When an event is initially suggested for publication, publication dates specifying the date and time at which an event 1) can be published and 2) must no longer be published may be specified by a suggestor. The default publication dates for an event if unspecified are to publish upon approval and stop publication after the event ends. The suggested publication dates may be changed for a given audience by an approver.

As the PWS forwards events to target audiences along information pathways, it sets the publication dates of the event for downstream audiences to be those as set upon point of receipt of the event from its initial upstream target audience.

Monitoring the Activities of the Publishing Workflow System

As the Publishing Workflow Systems forwards information between target audiences and modifies the publication status of events in target audience publishing queues, it logs the following to the publishing workflow log of an event:

  • The initiating action which prompted the PWS to execute
  • The date and time of PWS's initiation
  • The actions considered by the PWS, the action selected, and the reasoning why the action was selected
  • The publication status changes made by the PWS with respect to target audiences
  • The information pathways evaluated by the PWS

Upon completion of its evaluation of all affected information pathways and target audiences, the PWS notifies approvers of audiences affected by its decisions via messages sent by email, sent to Sundial's internal message center, or both.

Revised: July 07, 2009
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