Table of Contents
Setting up an approval workflow in Fotoware
18. June 2025
Table of Contents
By default, users who have access to an archive can see all the files in that archive. By implementing an approval workflow, it will be possible for DAM managers to selectively approve content for use, and in extension, for different types of use.
What's required?
Note: Details may vary - this workflow is meant only as an example and may have to be adapted to local requirements.
- Two user groups: DAM Managers and DAM Users.
- Managers will have access to approve content for use, Users will only see content that has been approved
- An archive with content that the manager will approve. Users will only see approved content in this archive
Choosing a metadata field for approval state
Firstly, you must select a metadata field to be used to store the approval state. This is accomplished by going to the site configuration dashboard and accessing the site's configuration in the Operations Center.
Note: Customers cannot do this themselves, so for them, the lesson ends here. They do not have the required access to the Operations Center to be able to pick the metadata field and enable taxonomies for it.
Choose a Single field that you want to use to store the approval state and give it a Display name and a Plural name. Select Override default name and Taxonomy. The reason we want a taxonomy for this field is to allow the admin to choose from predefined values when filling in the field.
Tip: If you're not sure which field to use, fields 800-819 are Single fields that can be used for custom workflows.
Creating an action to approve or reject assets
Next, go to your Fotoware's site configuration and create a new action. This will be used to approve or reject assets.
This needs to be an Extended action.
On the Source asset tab, configure the action to show the metadata editor and add the field you selected for the approval state in the Operations Center. Select QL only to only allow the DAM manager to choose from preset values from the taxonomy associated with this field.
Finally, go to the Access list tab and add the DAM Managers group to the access list. We don't want to give regular users access to set the approval state on assets.
Select Save when you're finished.
Give your DAM Managers group access to edit taxonomies
Complete this step to allow your DAM Managers to populate the quick list for the approval field with the values that will be used to evaluate whether a regular user can see assets in the archive or not.
Go to the Users/Groups node in the site configuration and edit the DAM Managers group. Make sure the group has been given permission to Manage taxonomies, then save the group settings.
Run the action and add the required taxonomy entries
Next, go to the Fotoware user interface and log in as a member of the DAM Managers group. Select a couple of sample files in the archive that contain your assets for approval and run the approval action you created.
Select the symbol in the Approval State field and use the + icon to add entries to the list. The values you need to add are Approved and Rejected.
Select Approved from the list and select Run now to execute the workflow.
What did the action do?
You have now successfully approved an asset in the archive. The action added the Approved tag to the selected metadata field. Next, we will configure the archive access list so that regular users will only see the assets that are approved (just that one asset for now).
Set an access list on the archive
Complete this step to ensure that regular users can only see assets that have been explicitly approved.
- Go to Site Configuration and edit the archive properties.
- Open the Access list tab.
As can be seen from the screenshot above, two user groups have been given access to the archive - DAM Editors and DAM users. Far down in the screenshot, you can see the Autosearch filter, which can be applied individually by highlighting the user group in the list above. Select the DAM Users group and set an auto search filter to only display assets where the approval state field that you set previously contains the value Approved.
The syntax reads:
1 |
(IPTCxxx contains (Approved) |
Replace xxx with the ID of the field you used to set the approval state, field 203 in the above example.
Note how the DAM Editors group does not have an auto search associated with it. That's because we want members of the DAM Editors group to see everything in the archive.
When you're finished, select Save.
Testing your configuration
Now is a good time to test your configuration:
Log on to the site with a user account that's a member of DAM Editors. Run the Approval action on a handful of assets.
Log out and log back in as a user who is a member of DAM users. When browsing the archive you should only see assets that have been approved.
Enriching your configuration - Basic Markers
Now that the basic workflow is created, let's create some markers for DAM Editors to let them see which assets have been approved. You'll remember that DAM Editors see all the content in the archive, so a visual marker to tell them which assets they have approved and released for regular users would be practical.
- From the Tools menu (cogwheel icon) go to Site Configuration > Workflows > Marker.
- Select Add marker.
Setting up a marker for approved assets
We'll configure the first marker to show on assets that have been approved. The text you enter in the Description field will be displayed as a tooltip in Fotoware when you hover over the marker.
Since this marker is simply a visual indicator, you can choose Type: Standard as shown above.
The trick to getting the marker to show is to set a condition: We want this marker to show on assets that have been approved, i.e. the metadata field that you chose previously needs to contain the word Approved. We already have an approval action set up that will write approved or rejected in that field, so all we need to do now is make sure the marker reflects one of those states:
- In the Condition area in the marker setup, choose the field by selecting …
- Match type: Equals
- Expression: Approved
This way, the marker will show when the field you chose has the exact value Approved.
Next, select the marker icon and color in the Display section of the marker setup. In the example above, a green checkmark is used to indicate an approved asset.
Finally, go to the Access list tab and make sure only DAM Managers see the marker. Regular users won't need this marker, since all they can see are approved assets anyway.
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Setting up a marker for rejected assets
Having created a marker for approved assets you can close the marker and create the reverse - a marker that shows when assets are rejected:
- From the Tools menu (cogwheel icon) go to Site Configuration > Workflows > Marker.
- On the General tab, select Clone for the Approved marker. Cloning a marker retains all its settings, including its access list. Then all you need to do is change the conditions and its label and description.
This is how an example Rejected asset marker setup looks - replicate it to match the field chosen for approval state in your configuration:
If you cloned the Approved marker and simply changed its basic settings (name, description, marker condition), you'll notice that the access list has been retained - only DAM Managers can see the marker.
Setting up a marker for assets that are pending approval
Lastly, we will need to set up a marker for assets that are pending approval, i.e. assets that have not yet been tagged as approved or rejected. This involved creating a marker condition based on a regular expression:
You can use the screenshot above as a guide: The trick is to create a condition based on a regular expression. The expression in the screenshot reads as follows:
^$|^Pending$
Without going into too much detail:
- ^$ - empty field
- | - or
- ^Pending$ - string contains exactly Pending
So the marker shows 1) if the field is empty, or 2) if the field contains Pending.
This way, all assets that the DAM Manager has not explicitly marked as approved or rejected will be seen as pending approval.