In Plone, workflow involves a series of 'states' and 'transitions'.  Each content item is assigned a state, and can only be in one state at a time.  An item's current state determines who has permissions to do things like edit the item, change the metadata for the item, and find it by searching.  You can have items in a different state in the same folder, and users will only be able to see the items they have permission to see.

Transitions define how an item can move from one state to another, and who can make those changes.  For example, anyone that can edit an item can also submit the item for publication, but in our system, only site managers and reviewers have the permission to publish the item to either subscribers or the public.

For more information, see our Workflow FAQ.

Our States

Private

Change an item to private if you want to keep it to yourself.  Only you and the site managers will be able to see it.

Group

This means the content is only available to those users with special permissions for the current group folder.  Regular site subscribers and the general public will not be able to see the information or find it by searching.  This is the default state.

Pending

This indicates that the item has been submitted for publication, but has not yet been reviewed.

Subscriber

This item is viewable by anyone who has an account on the site, but not anonymous readers, or site subscribers who have not logged in.

Published

Available to anyone on the web, can be indexed by search engines, etc.

Archive

This state indicates that the content is "stale" and is in the queue to be archived and removed from the site. Items in this site can only be viewed by the original creators and site managers.

Our Transitions

Make Private

Moves an item from group-viewable to the private state, so that only the item's author and site managers can see it. Only an item's author and site managers can use this transition.

Show Group

Moves an item from the 'private' state to the 'group' state, so that all group members can access it.

Archive

Moves an item to the 'archive' state, which hides it from everyone except site managers and the original author.  Only managers can use this transition.

Unarchive

Retrieves an item from the 'archive' queue and sets its state to 'group'. Available to managers only.

Submit

Moves the item to the 'pending' state and adds it to the list of items to be reviewed by site reviewers and managers for publication.  If special instructions or notes are needed, you can add comments when submitting an item.

Retract

Move an item that was submitted for publication back to the 'group' state. This transition can be executed by the item's author.

Reject

Used by reviewers and managers to send an item that is not ready for publication back to the 'group' state.  It is good form for reviewers to add comments when rejecting an item so that the submitter can understand the reasoning and make changes if needed.

Show Subscribers

Moves an item from the 'pending' state to the 'subscriber' state, which makes it viewable to anyone that is logged in.  Only available to managers and reviewers.

Publish

Makes the item available on to everyone on the internet. Only available to managers and reviewers.