Can Revo allow staging of content?

So, what I am after is Revo to allow a user group called "content editors" to create new resources and edit published resources, save them, but not be able to push them live... Upon save, the user group "content publishers" should be notified of the update / new resource made by a content editor via email, the content publisher can then log in and edit/publish the resources from staging to live.

I'd also like content publishers to be able to save a new resource / update a resource to a staging environment - e.g. choosing to save the resource but not publish it as well as be able to publish live directly (content publishers have this publish to live function whereas content editor does not - they can only submit their work for approval and publication by a content publisher).

This workflow is fairly standard but seems to be missing from most open source CMS tools?

I would think Revo would therefore need:

1. Version control on versions of resources... is this possible? e.g. to be able to publish version 4 of the resource, but then maybe later rever back to version 3 etc...
2. A staging environment for 'draft' versions of resources - The StageCoach pluding exists, but I can't get it to work and it does not really offer what I am looking for here, e.g. In StageCoach, the user has to manually set the staged publish date of the resource in a TV - I would not need this functionality, instead when a new resource is created or existing one updated and saved as a draft - it should remain on staging forever until published, e.g. no need to set the publication date...
3. Ability to notify publishers user group of resource creation / updates by editors - this is possible with the ResourceWatcher plugin
4. Ability to connect all these bits together to create the staged hierarchy publication workflow

I have never used Silverstripe before, but it looks like it offers a staged environment as well as a live one... I don't really want to drop MODx for Silverstripe here - but having this staged version of resources is important for this deployment....

Any ideas anyone?

Anyone fancy taking this on to be developed?

shouldn't be that difficult to create a staging-feature like that with a MIGXdb-TV.

It could collect all resource-fields and TVs into a custom-table(versions) with a onDocFormSave-plugin or a button for (create new version of current resource)
The same plugin could do the notification-stuff.

you can edit and view all versions with the MIGXdb-TV.
there could be a function(button in a grid-column or right-click-menue) to make a version the published version.(copy the selected version into the resource/TVS and publish it)
Also rendering a version in a preview-window should be possible.

Content-Editors could have only access to a CMP, also created whith MIGXdb, where they can edit their versions.
[ed. note: Bruno17 last edited this post 13 years, 3 months ago.]

Quote from: Bruno17 at Jun 28, 2013, 02:51 AM

shouldn't be that difficult to create a staging-feature like that with a MIGXdb-TV.

It could collect all resource-fields and TVs into a custom-table(versions) with a onDocFormSave-plugin or a button for (create new version of current resource)
The same plugin could do the notification-stuff.

you can edit and view all versions with the MIGXdb-TV.
there could be a function(button in a grid-column or right-click-menue) to make a version the published version.(copy the selected version into the resource/TVS and publish it)
Also rendering a version in a preview-window should be possible.

Content-Editors could have only access to a CMP, also created whith MIGXdb, where they can edit their versions.

Thanks Bruno, I will have a look into this - Do you have an example of it working I could take a look at?

Core MODx team - Is this workflow coming in the next release of MODx? ETA on when? I see it has been under development for quite some time now? > https://getsatisfaction.com/modx/topics/introduce_user_workflow_capabilities_approval_processes_etc

Not one, I could give access to.
I could create a package of one, which is in the works, next week.

That sounds awesome Bruno - Let me know when you have had chance to package it up and I will have a play on an install my end... Very exciting!

@Dubbs

You can do this using ACLs, VersionX and ResourceWatcher.

I'm not sure how VersionX would handle the editing of a resource that is edited without it being published and if ResourceWatcher can be edited so it only fires when resources are created by a specified user group.

I've done something similar before but VersionX wasn't available back then and I needed to be notified when any resource was edited and or created so it's certainly doable.

Quote from: benmarte at Jun 28, 2013, 09:30 AM

@Dubbs

You can do this using ACLs, VersionX and ResourceWatcher.

I'm not sure how VersionX would handle the editing of a resource that is edited without it being published and if ResourceWatcher can be edited so it only fires when resources are created by a specified user group.

I've done something similar before but VersionX wasn't available back then and I needed to be notified when any resource was edited and or created so it's certainly doable.

I have a version working with ACLs and ResourceWatcher - that part all works, the staging is what is missing... I will have a look at VersionX

Quote from: benmarte at Jun 28, 2013, 09:30 AM

@Dubbs

You can do this using ACLs, VersionX and ResourceWatcher.

I'm not sure how VersionX would handle the editing of a resource that is edited without it being published and if ResourceWatcher can be edited so it only fires when resources are created by a specified user group.

I've done something similar before but VersionX wasn't available back then and I needed to be notified when any resource was edited and or created so it's certainly doable.

@benmarte - Just installed VersionX and it does not seem a likely solution, the UX is not very intuitive to me, for example when you say an update to a resource I would expect a new version to automatically be created and be highlighted as the version which was live... It does not do this? Then reverting to older version becomes a bit pot luck - with extra versions being created with every save... You also can't edit a 'version' of a resource without first making it live in VersionX? Or am I missing something?

I wrote a small Review & How To on how VersionX works it definitely doesn't work like you want it to so if you have any recommendations or feature requests you should let Mark know on the github repo.

Again, like I said it can be done I didn't say it was going to be easy or pretty :-/

Quote from: benmarte at Jun 28, 2013, 10:37 AM

I wrote a small Review & How To on how VersionX works it definitely doesn't work like you want it to so if you have any recommendations or feature requests you should let Mark know on the github repo.

Again, like I said it can be done I didn't say it was going to be easy or pretty :-/

Thanks It's a shame MODx has all these disparate addons which do individual great things but don't seem to play together very nicely... I think getting a solid versioning workflow built into the main REVO build is essential for new releases personally... I am having to install SilverStripe now to review that and see if that will be a better contender for this CMS use-case... shame