Arbitrary moderation states and unpublished drafts for content.
Content Moderation adds arbitrary moderation states to Backdrop core's "unpublished" and "published" content states, and affects the behavior of content revisions when content are published. Moderation states are tracked per-revision; rather than moderating content, Content Moderation moderates revisions.
In Backdrop, content may be either unpublished or published. In typical configurations, unpublished content is accessible only to the user who created the content and to users with administrative privileges; published content is visible to any visitor. For simple workflows, this allows authors and editors to maintain drafts of content. However, when content needs to be seen by multiple people before it is published--for example, when a site has an editorial or moderation workflow--there are limited ways to keep track of content' status. Content Moderation provides moderation states, so that unpublished content may be reviewed and approved before it gets published.
Content Moderation affects the behavior of Backdrop’s content revisions. When revisions are enabled for a particular content type, editing a content creates a new revision. This lets users see how a content has changed over time and revert unwanted or accidental edits. Content Moderation maintains this revision behavior: any time a content is edited, a new version is created.
When there are multiple versions of a content--it has been edited multiple times, and each round of editing has been saved in a revision--there is one "current" revision. The current revision will always be the revision displayed in the content editing form when a user goes to edit a piece of content.
In Backdrop core, publishing a content makes the current revision visible to site visitors (in a typical configuration). Once a content is published, its current revision is always the published version. Content Moderation changes this; it allows you to use an older revision of a content as the published version, while continuing to edit a newer draft.
@see content_moderation-core_revisions.png @see content_moderation-wm_revisions.png
Internally, Content Moderation does this by managing the version of the content
stored in the {node} table. Backdrop core looks in this table for the "current
revision" of a content. Backdrop core equates the "current revision" of a content with
both the editable revision and, if the content is published, the published
revision. Content Moderation separates these two concepts; it stores the
published revision of a content in the {node} table, but uses the latest revision
in the {node_revision} table when the content is edited. Content Moderation's
treatment of revisions is identical to that of Backdrop core until content is
published.
Content Moderation maintains moderation states for revisions, rather than for content. Since each revision may reflect a unique version of content, the state may need to be revisited when a new revision is created. This also allows users to track the moderation history of a particular revision, right up through the point where it is published.
Revisions are a linear; revision history may not fork. This means that only the latest revision may be edited or moderated.
Install the module and enable it according to Backdrop standards.
If the site previously used Drupal 7 and Workbench Moderation module installation will attempt to fetch the configuration from Workbench Moderation.
After installation, enable moderation on a content type by visiting its configuration page:
Admin > Structure > Content Types > [edit Article]
In the tab block at the bottom of the form, select the "Publishing options" tab. In this tab under "Default Options", Content Moderation has added a checkbox, "Enable moderation of revisions". To enable moderation on this content type, check the boxes labeled "create new revision" (required) and "enable moderation of revisions", and then save the content type.
Content Moderation does not depend on Views. However, Content Moderation does have Views integration, and it provides two useful views ("My Drafts" and "Needs Review").
Content Moderation's configuration section is located at:
Admin > Configuration > Content Moderation > Content Moderation
This administration section provides tabs to configure states, transitions, and to check whether your permissions are configured to enable full use of moderation features.
Content Moderation provides three default moderation states: "Draft", "Needs Review", and "Published". The Draft and Published states are required. You can edit, add, and remove states at:
Admin > Configuration > Content Moderation > Content Moderation > States
Content Moderation also provides transitions between these three states. You can add and remove transitions at:
Admin > Configuration > Content Moderation > Content Moderation > Transitions
In order to use moderation effectively, users need a complex set of permissions. If non-administrative users encounter access denied (403) errors or fail to see notifications about moderation states, the "Check permissions" tab can help you determine what permissions are missing. Visit:
Admin > Configuration > Content Moderation > Content Moderation > Check Permissions
Select a Backdrop role, an intended moderation task, and the relevant content types, and Content Moderation will give you a report of possible missing permissions. Permissions configuration depends heavily on your configuration, so the report may flag permissions as missing even when a particular role has enough access to perform a particular moderation task.
For reference, these are the permission sets recommended by the "Check Permissions" tab:
Author:
Node:
access content
view own unpublished content
view revisions
create [content type] content
edit own [content type] content
Content Moderation:
view moderation messages
use content_moderation my drafts tab
Editor:
Node:
access content
view revisions
revert revisions
edit any [content type] content
Content:
view all unpublished content
Content Moderation:
view moderation messages
view moderation history
use content_moderation my drafts tab
use content_moderation needs review tab
Moderator:
Node:
access content
view revisions
edit any [content type] content
Content:
view all unpublished content
Content Moderation:
view moderation messages
view moderation history
use content_moderation needs review tab
Publisher
Node:
access content
view revisions
revert revisions
edit any [content type] content
Content:
view all unpublished content
Content Moderation:
view moderation messages
view moderation history
use content_moderation needs review tab
unpublish live revision
Once the module is installed and moderation is enabled for one or more content types, users with permission may:
- Use the "Moderate" content tab to view moderation history and navigate versions.
- If users get access denied (403) errors when creating, editing, moderating, or reverting moderated content, the "Check Permissions" tab in Content Moderation's administration section can help diagnose what access is missing. See heading 3.3 in this README.
- If you're building Views of moderation records, keep in mind that for a single content, there will be multiple revisions, and for each revision, there may be multiple moderation records. This means it will be very easy to end up with a View that shows particular content or revisions more than once. Try adding the "Content Moderation: Current" filter, or using Views' "Use grouping" option (under the "Advanced settings" heading on the view editing page).
Content Moderation uses one table to track content moderation node history.
- content_moderation_node_history Stores individual moderation records related to each content revision. Each record stores the nid and vid of a node, the original moderation state and the new moderation state, the uid of the user who did the moderation, and a timestamp.
Content Moderation provides Views integration so that site builders may include moderation information in node and node revision views.
- Filters, fields, sorts, and arguments are provided for moderation record data.
- A relationship is provided from moderation records to the user who made the moderation change.
- A "content type is moderated" filter is provided on for content to help in creating lists of only moderated content.
- Allow configuration of 'Draft' and 'Published' states.
This project is GPL v2 software. See the LICENSE.txt file in this directory for complete text.
- herbdool
- Seeking more maintainers.
Ported to Backdrop by herbdool from Workbench Moderation. Originally based on content_moderation module by eugenmayer.
Drupal Maintainers: