Publishing

Editors and Chief Editors have the ability to: 

• publish content submitted for approval
• change timing by setting the publish and expiration dates
• close content (or create new versions)
  

These tasks can be performed in various places in the Silva Management Area:

• the publish screen of documents
  
• the publish screen of containers (folders and publications)
• the contents screen of containers (folders and publications)
  
• various other document screens, such as properties, preview, and public preview
  

The difference between them is a matter of efficiency. In the publish screen of a document, you can only publish that document. In the publish screen of containers, you can publish multiple documents in one go, including documents nested in subfolders. These publish screens also allow fine grained control of publication and expiration times in the future.

Publishing in the contents screen

The content screen of containers allows simple toggling between published and closed. Often you just want to close a document so you can move it, and republish it immediately, so there are close and publish now buttons available under the “publishing actions” heading.

Fig.1. The controls bar of the contents screen.

In the contents screen you can only see items on one level, so you only publish (alt-p) and close (alt-l) items in that folder.

Publishing in document screens

In the editor screen there is also a publish now (alt-p) button that immediately publishes the content. A new version can then be created. (If you work with different screens in the tabs of your browser, say, one for the editor and one for public preview,  it speeds up the process considerably.)

The preview and public preview screens also have publish now buttons. In the properties screen one can create a new version, to change the properties, and publish it immediately.

Advanced publishing actions: approve for future, update timing, and export

Bulk publishing operations occur in the publish screen. Documents, folders, and entire publications can be published with a few clicks.

Fig. 2. The publish screen as Editors and Chief Editors see it.

Editor publishes content

1. Navigate to the Folder or Publication you wish to work on.
   Then click the publish tab to get to the publish screen for that item. (Fig. 1.)

2. Place a checkmark next to the items you wish to publish. You can use the “select all” selector (alt-a) as well.
   

3. Fill in an expiration time if necessary. Click the publish now button (alt-p). All documents will be immediately opened to the public.

4. Alternatively, fill in a publication date if the documents should be published in the future (time is optional). If necessary, fill in an expiration date too. Click the approve for later button (alt-l).

5. Check the returning screen for success or failure of your approval.

6. Any time after approval you can intercept publication via the revoke approval button (alt-v). In this case it’s a good idea to do this via the publish screen of the document, since you can fill in a message in the “Message to author(s)” textarea to inform the author about the reason for the revocation.

7. You can close public content via the close (alt-c) button if you decide it should taken offline.

Notes

You can fill in a date with simple numbers, such as 7-7-7, which will become the 7th of july in 2007. The time is completely optional and defaults to midnight.

You can make new versions of closed content later on.

Authors may make new versions (editable copies) to work on.

The difference between revoking approval and closing is that the link (re)coloration indicates a problem with the document. If approval is revoked, the link turns red. Closed documents turn gray, which denotes the normal end of the life cycle of that document. (Fig.1.)

If you use the “select all” selector (alt-a) to publish everything, remember that publications are not transparent. The publish action does not affect content within a nested publication. You can only publish content that you can see, which means the contents of each publication must be published separately.

Publication and expiration time

If content is approved, it will become publicly visible only within the time frame between publish time and expiration time. If you do not set an expiration, the published content will remain public forever, or until someone closes it. Note that you have to check the “clear expiration” checkbox when you want to remove the expiration, otherwise the expiration time will remain.

Content that is approved or published can have its expiration date settings changed. Fill in the new dates and click the update timing button (alt-u).

Publication state of Publications and Folders

You cannot directly publish Publications and Folders. Instead their publication state is determined via the index. A Folder is considered published if its index is published. This means you can ‘un-publish’ an entire tree of content by closing the uppermost index.

Reading information in the Publish screen

If you want to check the condition of the content, you’ll find the information in the listing table of the Publish screen. This does not depend on your role; the information is always visible. In the listing, ids are shown on the left (note that only publicly visible items appear, no folders or assets). Items are indented to show the publication structure.

The relevant status information can be found in the three rightmost columns of the listing table.

Revision column

Displays information about the current version. The possible states are:

draft: (link color is red, a ‘stop’ color) the content not yet submitted for approval.

pending: (link color is dark yellow, like a stoplight) the content is waiting for approval.

approved: (link color is green, a ‘go’) the content has been approved, but is not published yet. You must revoke the approval before re-editing it.

published: (link color is blue, a typical link) the content is visible for the public.

closed: (link color is gray) indicates that there is no new version and the public version is closed. You can create a new version by clicking the edit link, or use the new version button (alt-n) for doing several documents at once.

Publication due column

If a there is a publish time set in the future, the date is listed. Otherwise the cell is empty.

Expiration due column

If a there is an expiration time set, the date is listed. Otherwise the cell is empty.

Published column

This displays information about the published, ‘not-being-edited’ version. This may contain a blue “published” link for currently public versions, a gray “closed” note for closed or expired versions, or be empty if there is no public version. If the content is published then it’s linked to the publicly visible page. If an expiration time is set, the publish range of the content is shown.

Versioning of documents

Once content is published a new version can be created. The published version stays online for the public, while the editable versions can be worked on, and approved with a publication date in the future. (see document versioning)

Exporting content

The entire text of publications, folders, and documents can be exported as Silva XML which can then be re-imported elsewhere. These activities occur via the export link in the publish screen (see exporting content).