workflow "approve" issues

[James Holobetz]

Hi Everybody,

I am experiencing weird behaviour when entering an item that has a multi-step process. Entering the item is fine and so is review and edit. When I try to "Approve" it for public consumption, the progress bar is green and it appears to remove it from the "Workflow tasks" area. But the item is not released and when you go back to the Workflow tasks area, the item is still there.The only time it successfully releases it is when, during the process, you edit something (even something as simple as remove and add back a period in the abstract). Nothing shows up in the logs at all. I have validated both the item-submission.xml and the submission-forms.xml. I am at a loss.

For reference, we are using DSpace 7.6 and also, we ported our old input-forms.xml and item-submission.xml files and used the "./dspace submission-forms-migrate" script.

Best regards,

James Holobetz

[Fitchett, Deborah]

You mention you’re using a multi-step process, so let me describe how our two-step process has been working for me in testing 7.4, in case that shines any light on your case:

 

• The item is submitted.
• It shows in the workflow task list as “Waiting for controller”
• I claim it – it now shows as “Validation”
• I can either edit, reject, or approve (ie workflow step 2 aka “editstep”)
• If I approve it (without editing), it appears to disappear from the workflow. I need to refresh the screen to see it again in the workflow list, now showing as “Waiting for controller” again
• I claim it again – it shows as “Validation” again – and I can either edit or approve (ie workflow step 3 aka “finaleditstep”)
• If I approve it (without editing), it disappears from the workflow and is now published in the collection as expected.

 

The status labels “Waiting for controller” and “Validation” are confusing in this kind of multi-step process because they actually have nothing to do with the steps, and there’s no way currently to add a label to show what step it’s at.  (See https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/1609 for a description of a possible solution to this if someone’s interested in volunteering….)

 

So possibly that’s part of what’s causing confusion for you?

 

And/or you may be seeing a difference in behaviour between directly approving vs editing-then-approving because when you edit-then-approve, the process of returning from the item view to the workflow list reloads and updates that list. But if you approve direct from the workflow list, the list doesn’t fully update so the item seems to disappear from it and you need to refresh the page to see it.

 

Deborah

 

From: dspac...@googlegroups.com <dspac...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of James Holobetz
Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2023 6:40 AM
To: dspac...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [dspace-tech] workflow "approve" issues

 

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[James Holobetz]

I appreciate your detailed feedback.

What you have detailed is exactly what methodology/process we are using as well. I can enter it properly, can view it, claim it, and edit it, return it to the pool, (I haven't tried to reject). My only issue is that I can not "Approve" it properly after initial entry. The anomaly is that I can "Approve" it after doing an "Edit." That is the only underlying issue. Nothing else. Everything else works properly.

James