Where to store information for items in Workflow?

Question

In training we had this scenario: "for items in workflow in Experience Manager, I would like to interact with each page to mark or note that I've approved it."

Bundle workflow approval is for all items. So I'm looking for confirmation on:

1. Would you store the "flag" on the items or with the Bundle? This sounds like AppData.
2. Is the Task pane that shows the Bundle and its items extendable?

The idea could be a button on Staging pages that are in workflow. Clicking on the button sets a flag that the item was "reviewed" manually. The flags might not do anything aside from remind the reviewer what they've looked at.

Answer 1

Note that in the CM domain model, a WorkItem has a Comment property which is intended for this purpose. Unfortunately, this feature is not exposed in the UI (OOTB) yet, but if you want to implement such a feature as an extension, consider using WorkItem.Comment instead of AppData.

The nice thing of WorkItems is that each Activity has its own, distinct set of WorkItems, so that your WorkItem.Comment will be kept for each Activity.

Answer 2

Great idea with the custom button Alvin. In this case, AppData is your best place for storing this info.

However, before jumping into customizations, consider this: You have a bundle of items that is moved through steps in the workflow. A step requiring approval is a Manual Decision. This means that you either approve the whole Bundle (including all the pages within) or you reject the whole Bundle. That is, you don't approve one part of the Bundle, but reject another. It's all or none. And you have a comment field to tell the next person in the flow what hey need to fix.

So, to complete this Manual Decision you select what next step(s)/Activities you want to send the Bundle to and you input a comment. In this comment simply write out the page names or Tcm ID of what needs fixing, and send the Bundle back to the pesky buggers that couldn't get it right the first time.