Manual:Extension/ContentStabilization

ContentStabilization is available from BlueSpice 4.3. Up to version 4.2, approvals are handled by the extension FlaggedRevs.

The ContentStabilization extension is a MediaWiki extension that activates an approval mechanism. New versions of a page are initially marked as drafts. These remain in place until a user with approval rights reviews and approves the page.

Enable page approval

Drafts are activated via the namespace administration. A user with administrator rights checks whether Approval is enabled for a namespace. This is done under Global Actions > Administration > Namespaces.

Click the edit icon (wrench) in the Actions column. The namespace dialog opens. Select approval and click Done.

Activated Approval feature for a namespace

Existing Pages

After Approval is activated for a namespace, all existing pages in the namespace appear in draft mode. The pages now show the status First draft.

First draft

By default, the page status is displayed in the title area of every page with approval function .

Alternatively, the status info can be moved below the page content from the Config manager.

First drafts

When a new page is created and saved for the first time, it will appear as first draft. By default, first drafts are visible to all users with read permissions. However, this can be restricted to individual user groups from the Config manager.

Drafts

If a page is edited and saved multiple times in draft mode, each edit is logged in the page history:

Drafts are shown in the revision history

Drafts are highlighted in color in the version history. In addition, they are marked with "Release pending".

Accepting a page

A user with reviewer permissions can approve the page from the status message in the title area of the page. The approval comment is logged in the page's version history.

Approval from the title area

The new approval status is shown accordingly in the title area.

Approved page status

Configuration

The following settings are made in the Config manager in combination with namespace settings.

Changes to templates, embedded files and transclusions

If a page uses templates or contains other files such as images and embedded PDFs, or if content from other pages is transcluded and modified after the page was approved, those changes must also be approved. There are two mechanisms to accomplish the approval:

1. The embedded resource is in a namespace without approval mechanism: If the embedded resource is in a namespace without its own approval function, the approved version of the page shows the resource version that was embedded at the time of the page approval. An implicit draft version shows the most recent version of the embedded resource.
   
2. The embedded resource is in a namespace with approval mechanism: The approval is done directly for the resource itself to avoid approval on all affected content pages.

Important!If the approval mechanism is activated in a resource namespace (e.g. Template, File) in retrospect, all existing pages in the resource namespace are then in first draft. If the wiki is configured so that not all users can see drafts, the resources may need to be initially approved via server script if this cannot be accomplished manually.

About approvals via server script.

Setting	Behaviour of the approved content page - No resource approval mechanism Resource without approval feature	Behaviour of the approved content page - Approval mechanism via resource namespace Resource with approval feature
Versions that were current at the time of approval (Default)	Resource display: the embedded version at the time of approval is shown on the approved page: Approved page version with the version of the resource that was embedded at the time of page approval an implicit draft with the latest version of the resource exists: Page draft due to change of embedded resource Resource approval: the implicit draft must be approved on the content page. If the resource is embedded/linked on multiple pages in the wiki, all pages must be approved separately.	Resource display: the embedded version at the time of approval is shown: Approved page version with the version of the resource that was valid at the time of page approval an implicit draft with the latest version of the resource exists: Page draft due to change of embedded resource Resource approval: Case A: the implicit draft can be approved on the content page. If the resource is embedded on multiple pages in the wiki, all pages must be released separately. Case B (expected case): when the resource itself is approved, the implicit draft is removed from all affected content pages. These no longer have to be approved separately.
Approved versions of included pages	This setting has no effect if the resource itself has no approval mechanism. The page shows the same behavior as for "Versions that were current at the time of approval" (see above).	Resource display: the approved version of the resource is shown on page. The currently approved version of the resource is shown. Resource approval: takes place exclusively via the resource itself. The page contains no indication whether a draft version of the resource exists.
Current versions of included pages	Resource display: the current version of the resource is shown: Approved page with the current version of the resource Resource approval: the resource itself cannot be approved	Resource display: the current version of the resource is shown: Approved page with the current version of the resource Resource approval: The approval status of the resource has no effect on the page and should therefore not be used in combination with an activated approval mechanism in the resource namespace.

Reading permissions for drafts

By default, all users can see a page's drafts, including users with only read permissions.

To hide drafts from users, the user group must be removed from the configuration. This setting then applies to the entire wiki and cannot be further restricted to specific namespaces.

An administrator changes the groups that can see drafts in the Show draft versions for the following groups box.

Warning!If the group user is off is removed from the configuration, users in this group cannot see draft versions even if they are assigned a workflow task.

After removing the group user, the desired group(s ), e.g. B. the group editor, can be added to the configuration and saved.

Note:If no user groups are specified in the configuration field, even users with share rights and sysop users will not see a visual status indicator of the page. Instead, you have access to drafts through the page's history.

In order for administrators to see the status directly on the page, they must be added to a group listed here in the configuration.

Read permissions for first drafts

By default, first drafts are visible to all users who have read permissions in a namespace. However, if first drafts are only visible to those users who can generally view page drafts, this can be done in the configuration management by selecting Allow viewing of first draft version for users who can normally not see drafts to be disabled.

Summary: Read Permissions for Draft Pages

Define groups:

• Group user: Only the user groups that have been given this right in the configuration management can see first drafts and other drafts. By default, this is the user group (=all users who are logged into the wiki and have the appropriate reading rights in a namespace).
• Adjust groups: In the configuration management, the reading rights for (first) drafts can be restricted to other groups.
• Group sysop: Users in group sysop can always view drafts through the history. The sysop group can therefore not be set explicitly in the configuration. If sysop users can directly see the approval status on the page, they need to be added to a group with read permissions for drafts.

Export draft pages:

• Single page export: Users with reading rights on a draft page can print it directly as a PDF.
• Book export: Only approved pages are exported. If there is only a first draft of a page, it will be exported. Exception: If the book is printed by a user who does not have access to the first draft, the first draft will not be printed out in the book. Instead, the PDF shows the following message:
  

  Permissions error PDF export

Effects on Semantic MediaWiki properties

If a namespace has SemanticMediaWiki Semantic MediaWiki activated, the following SMW queries are available depending on the approval status of the page:

Document state	Available properties
First draft	Current values
Approved	Values of the approved (stable) version
Draft	Values of the approved (stable) version (default setting)
Implicit draft	Values of the approved (stable) version

The availability of the semantic properties is determined by the following configuration setting:

$bsgFlaggedRevsConnectorStabilizeSMWPropertyValues = true;

The value for this setting can be set to false in the LocalSettings.php of the server file system. If set to false, the property values of the draft version are used for semantic queries instead of the values for the stable version.

Quality management overview

The Special page Special:Quality_management_overview allows all users with reviewer permissions to view and filter a list of wiki pages and their review status. Pages for which a user does not have read permissions are not shown.

Special page "Quality management overview"

Approving a page when the title area is hidden

When the title area is hidden, you can approve the page from the ...all actions menu:

1. Switch to the draft version of the page (this not necessary when the page is in First draft status).  v4.3.2+
   

   Switching to first draft url
   
   Before v.4.3.2, this switch-link is not available. In that case, go to the page history and click on the latest time stamp to switch to the draft version of the page.
   

   The latest time stamp in the page history links to the draft page.
2. Approve the page via ...all actions -> Approve page .

All actions menu with approval link highlighted

Related info

• Quality management tools
• Reference:FlaggedRevs
• Reference:BlueSpiceFlaggedRevsConnector
• Manual:Semantic MediaWiki

Technical Reference: ContentStabilization

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