The approval process

An approval process is about formally approving the content of a page and ensuring that the page meets certain quality criteria before making it available to others.

The approval process of Breeze works on published Confluence pages because unpublished pages are invisible to other users and third-party apps.

Breeze provides two content statuses for the approval process.

The DRAFT status represents that a page is yet not approved. It can be automatically set for newly created pages given the associated space workflow was set up accordingly.

The Drafts component shows a list of all pages with the DRAFT status for a selected space.

The IN APPROVAL status represents that a person has requested approval for the page. This also includes the fact that approvers were notified to either approve or reject the page.

The Approval component shows all pages with the IN APPROVAL status for a selected space.

Requesting approval

To request approval for a page, click the content status at the top of the page.

In the content status dialog, click Request approval.

You can also request approval via the ... button in the lower right corner.

This will open the following dialog, in which you must specify the approval type, select approvers, and choose an optional due date for the page approval.

For the approval type, you can choose from the following options:

• Everyone must approve - a page is only approved by a unanimous decision
• First response decides - the first vote of whichever approver decides
• Majority must approve - a page is approved or rejected by a majority vote

Clicking Request approval will set the status to IN APPROVAL and add a page comment, which is used to inform about the progress and the approvers’ decisions when approving or rejecting the page.

Breeze uses @mentions in the approval comments, e.g. @Molly Clark , which will trigger the Confluence notification system to notify the approvers.

Approving or rejecting a page

After checking the content of a page, click the content status at the top of the page.

In the status dialog, you can either click Approve or Reject.

You can then provide a comment. Depending on your choice this is either optional (in case of approval) or obligatory (in case of rejection of a page).

After clicking Approve page (in case of approving) or Reject page (in case of rejecting), your decision shows in the page comments as a reply to the original request.

Depending on the approval type specified when requesting approval, the page may stay in the original status (e.g., if not all approvers have made their decision yet) or automatically switch to the UP TO DATE status if it is approved or to the DRAFT status if the approval is rejected.

Using working copies for page approvals

Besides the approval process mentioned above, Breeze also provides approvals via working copies representing clones of the original pages.

The main benefits of using working copies are:

• The original page stays untouched while users can collaboratively edit the cloned content in the working copy before requesting approval for the changes.
• The permissions to create and edit working copies can be freely configured via a dedicated working copy space. As an example, you can set up the permissions so that users with read-only permissions of the original page are allowed to create a working copy, edit the page content, and request approval for the changes. This approval can then be granted by a user with editing permissions for the original page, who can use Breeze to automatically merge the changes made to the working copy into the original page.

Creating a working copy

To use working copies for pages of a space, make sure to enable the feature in the corresponding workflow.

To create a working copy of a page, click the content status at the top of the page.

If you have editing permissions for the page, click the … button to access more actions.

Then click Create working copy.

If you have read-only permissions for the page, you do not need to open the more actions menu (because you can’t). Instead, you can directly click Create working copy.

Afterward, click Create working copy. This will clone the content and create a new page with the DRAFT status in the working copy space, which has been configured in the corresponding workflow.

Confluence requires that the pages within a space have a unique name. To avoid conflicting page names, Breeze automatically adds the space key of the original page to the name of the working copy.

Requesting approval for a working copy

Requesting approval for the changes made in a working copy is similar to the standard approval process explained here.

Approving or rejecting a working copy

The mechanism for approving or rejecting a working copy is similar to approving or rejecting a normal page, as explained here.

However, for a working copy, the content status dialog also provides a link to the original page and a button for comparing changes made in the working copy with the originally cloned content, allowing approvers to quickly understand what has changed.

Merging a working copy into the original page

After approving the working copy, the latest approver necessary for approving the page is asked to merge the working copy into the original page.

The working copy can also be merged at a later time via the more actions menu, which is opened by clicking the ... button in the content status dialog.

Clicking Merge working copy will merge the content of the working copy into the original page (including attachments) and create a new page version. The user executing the merge will become the author of this new page version.

After the merge, Breeze automatically archives the working copy (for paid Confluence plans) or deletes it (for the free Confluence plan).