How to override approvers

We are using WFT.I've to design a workflow in which there are two types of approvers
1) Optional Approvers
2) Override approvers.

Flow is like this:
1. Content Author creates content
2. Content Author select a optional approvers and overrise approvers from two list of approvers on WF initiation screen
3. Content Author submits the content for approval(Submit for Approval)
4. Optioanl Approver may take the ownership or not.(Task is at Optional Approver)
5) If the optional Approver is not approving for long tine then Again Content Author can submit the content for override approval(Author Click on Submit for Override Approval button)
5. Mail has to go to all the override approvers at a time.

Questions

1) Iam (Content Author) able to send a mail to Optional approver.But Iam not able to see the Submit for Override Approval button in my task.How can we achieve?

2) How can we set the predecessor and successor for the OverrideApprovalTask?

Whats the best way to implement this workflow ?

Please suggest me.

Thanks in advance
MSR

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ISCBorisB

We are using WFT.I've to design a workflow in which there are two types of approvers
1) Optional Approvers
2) Override approvers.

Flow is like this:
1. Content Author creates content
2. Content Author select a optional approvers and overrise approvers from two list of approvers on WF initiation screen
3. Content Author submits the content for approval(Submit for Approval)
4. Optioanl Approver may take the ownership or not.(Task is at Optional Approver)
5) If the optional Approver is not approving for long tine then Again Content Author can submit the content for override approval(Author Click on Submit for Override Approval button)
5. Mail has to go to all the override approvers at a time.

Questions

1) Iam (Content Author) able to send a mail to Optional approver.But Iam not able to see the Submit for Override Approval button in my task.How can we achieve?

2) How can we set the predecessor and successor for the OverrideApprovalTask?

Whats the best way to implement this workflow ?

Please suggest me.

Thanks in advance
MSR

You can not do it exactly like that in the User or Group Task. In theory you can code conditionally visible buttons
from your own CGI Task and process clicks accordingly. That said, I think you are over-complicating it.

If I were you I would transition "Notify Optional Reviewer" Mail Task to two concurrent ones. One is Reviewers' Group
Task not accessible to the Author. Another one is Author's User Task "I'm tired of waiting!" that transitions to
Notify/Group Task for the Override Group. In this schema Task ownership and transitions are trivial. All you have to do
is correctly deactivate tasks (User Task upon Regular Reviewer actions and Regular Group Task upon Overrider's Actions)

Adam Stoller

You can not do it exactly like that in the User or Group Task. In theory you can code conditionally visible buttons
from your own CGI Task and process clicks accordingly. That said, I think you are over-complicating it.

If I were you I would transition "Notify Optional Reviewer" Mail Task to two concurrent ones. One is Reviewers' Group
Task not accessible to the Author. Another one is Author's User Task "I'm tired of waiting!" that transitions to
Notify/Group Task for the Override Group. In this schema Task ownership and transitions are trivial. All you have to do
is correctly deactivate tasks (User Task upon Regular Reviewer actions and Regular Group Task upon Overrider's Actions)

Another alternative is to place a [reasonable] timeout on the optional review task such that if that amount of time is exceeded the workflow either (depending on your design) transitions to sending email to the override reviewers and transitions to their review task - or - transitions back to the author (through a notification to both the optional reviewer [to let them know they timed out] and to the author [to let them know the ball's back in their court]) and then transitions to the author and lets them decide whether to transition back to the optional reviewers or skip them and go to the override reviewers.

The advantage of Boris' design is that the author has control over how long to wait before deciding to give up on the optional reviewers, but at the same time it has the disadvantage of potentially causing more confusion (both for the reviewers and/or the author) and it requires a bit more complexity in the workflow coding.

The advantage of my suggestion is that it's "simpler", but it requires coming up with a reasonable timeout threshold and doesn't allow the author to arbitrarily decide before that threshold has been hit.

msr

Thanks for your reply.

I have implemented and achieved above suggested approach as 'transition "Notify Optional Reviewer" Mail Task to two concurrent ones'

As and when initiator click on Submit for Optional Approval, Two Tasks are shown (Approval For Production and Submit for Override Approval)in initiator's Active task list and approver's Active task list.

Only Initiator is able to click on Submit for Override Approval.

My Question is:Even though Initiator is not able to click on Submit for Override Approval button, Submit for Override Approval task is showing in Approver's tasks lists.

Can we remove (hide) the Submit For Override Approval Task from the Approver's tasks list.
Follwoing is the code for successorset.
successorset description="Content Approval"
succ v = "ReviewerGroupTask"/
succ v = "ContentOverrideApprovalGroupTask"/
/successorset

Please suggest me an approach to resolve this issue.

Thanks in advance
msr.

ISCBorisB

Can we remove (hide) the Submit For Override Approval Task from the Approver's tasks list

That depends. What is your TS Version and Platform?

msr

TeamSite Version : 6.5
Environment : Unix

ISCBorisB

TeamSite Version : 6.5
Environment : Unix

I'm not aware of any supported mechanism to make User Task "invisible" for the Reviewers in 6.5.

If they belong to WA's Group for Sharing and logged with any role higher than Author they will see
your Author's User Task. Task controls will be greyed out though (Except for Masters)