Automatic approvals

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Relying on people to remember to ask for approval is the weak point in most document control processes. Capable can raise the request for you: on every new page in a space, on every page somebody updates, or routed to different reviewers depending on how the page is labelled.

#Two switches, both off until you turn them on

Switch

What it does

Out of the box

Page creation

Every page created in the space arrives with an approval already waiting, using the default team's reviewers, quorum and expiry.

OFF

Page update

Raises an approval whenever somebody publishes a change to a page that has never had one.

OFF

Page creation is the one for a controlled space where nothing should exist unapproved. Page update is quietly the more useful of the two: it brings an existing space up to full coverage without a migration project, because as people naturally edit old pages, those pages get pulled into the process one at a time.

The switches are independent. Turn on either, or both.

#Send different pages to different reviewers

One default team does not always fit. You can map page labels to teams, so a page labelled security goes to the security reviewers and a page labelled hr goes to HR.[1]

Capable uses the first label on the page that matches a rule. If no label matches, the default team is used instead, so nothing falls through the gap.

Label routing has its own switches for creation and update, separate from the plain default-team ones, so you can route on creation but not on update if that suits how your space works.

Label mappings list pairing a meeting notes label with Admin team, plus an Add label mapping button
Each rule pairs a label with the team that should review it. Add more with Add label mapping.

#Set it up

1
Create the team
2
Enable it here
3
Turn it on

Create the team that will review these pages and add its members. Automation has no reviewer list of its own, so this is not optional. See Teams and assignment.

Create Team dialog with a team name, a description field, a user group added as members, and the Create Team button
Name the team, add its members, then select Create Team. You can add a whole group as well as individual people.
✓
Create the team
2
Enable it here
3
Turn it on

Enable the team in this space and set its quorum and expiry. A team that exists but is not enabled here cannot be used automatically. See Manage approval teams.

Space Approval Settings Teams tab listing approval teams with their member counts and status, such as Default, Configured and Unconfigured
The Teams tab in Space Approval Settings lists the teams available in this space and their status. Open a team to set it up here.
✓
Create the team
✓
Enable it here
3
Turn it on

Open space settings, Capable Approval, Automation, choose the default team and flip the switches you want. Every option is listed in Space settings.

When a page is created, updated or both, you can:

Request approval from a specific team

Automation tab with Page creation and Page update switched on and Space team chosen as the default team
On the Automation tab, turn on Page creation, Page update or both, then pick the default team underneath.

Request approval when specific labels are on the page

Route approvals by page label section with its own Page creation and Page update switches and a list of label mappings
Label routing sits further down the same tab, with its own creation and update switches. Pair each label with the team that should review it.

#A few things that catch people out

  • Nothing is raised if the default team is missing, not enabled in the space, or has no members. There is no error on the page. The approval simply does not appear.[2]

  • Automatic approvals are raised on behalf of whoever created or updated the page, so the history still shows who triggered it.

  • Page update only fires for pages with no approval on any version. It will not re-raise on a page that has been through the process before.

  • Blog posts are not covered. You can approve one by hand, but automatic raising and automatic reset on edit apply to pages only. See Known limitations.

  1. A space can hold up to 50 label rules. If you are anywhere near that, it is usually a sign the space wants splitting up rather than another rule. ↩
  2. This is far and away the most common reason automation looks broken. Check the team is enabled in that specific space and has at least one member before you look anywhere else. ↩

Your space now looks after itself. Nobody has to remember anything.