A workflow is a sequence of steps describing the life cycle of a document. In AODocs, each workflow step is called a workflow state.

Library administrators can configure workflow permissions for each workflow state:

Automatically generated table of contents

Define the permissions mode of the document class

Important: To configure the permissions based on workflow states, the permissions mode of the document class must be based on the workflow state of each document.
If the permissions of the document class are based on the document class or folders, the permissions dialog for each workflow displays a warning message informing you that changes you make to the workflow permissions won’t be taken into account.
Learn more: Configure inherited permissions on documents

To check the permissions mode of the document class:

1. In the administration interface, select Document Classes.

2. Click the name of the document class you want to configure or select Configure document class in the More actions menu. The document class configuration page opens.

3. In the Security tab, check that the document permissions are inherited from the document’s current workflow state.

Configure the document permissions

1. In the workflow configuration, click Permissions for each workflow state.

Note: Permissions set on a draft workflow state are applied only to the draft version of the document. The main version of the document takes the permissions set on a standard workflow state.

2. In the permissions dialog, select the Document permissions tab.

3. Choose to keep or reset the existing manually set document level permissions from the previous workflow state.

Tips:
– If your security mode is The authorized users can override the inherited security, administrators and sometimes contributors can modify the permissions of a document in a specific workflow state, regardless of the permissions set at the workflow level. In this situation, you can decide to keep the permissions added during the previous workflow state or to reset the permissions as defined in the workflow configuration.
– If the security mode is The inherited security cannot be overridden, nobody can change the permissions of the document manually. Forcing the reset of the permissions for each workflow state becomes unnecessary.
Learn more: Configure inherited permissions in document classes and Prevent users from overriding inherited permissions.

4. Configure the check-out/check-in setting for your workflow state. If you select the checkbox Documents are read-only when not checked out, the document will be read-only for everyone if it is checked-in. To edit the document in this state, the contributor must check out the document.

Note: The checkbox Documents are read-only when not checked out isn't available for Draft workflow states.

Tip: When using the check-out/check-in feature in a workflow, you can make sure no modifications can be done outside a check-out state of the document.

5. Configure the sharing permissions for the workflow state:

• Enter an individual user, Google group, Microsoft group, or role. 
• Click Add.
• Set the permissions level to one of:
  • Read
  • Read, Comment 
  • Read, Write

The sharing permissions are applied to the document when it enters the workflow state.

Notes: The Read, Comment permission:
– gives you comment access on the Google files attached to your document. The other elements of the document, such as the properties, the description or the relations are in read-only
– is only available in Secured Folders and Document Management libraries

6. You can also set the visibility mode of the document:

• Documents visible only to specific users and groups: only users and groups defined in the list of document permissions (step 5) have access to the document

• Documents visible to all library readers: the document is read-only to all users, including contributors
• Documents editable by all library contributors: contributors can edit the document, readers can’t view it
• Documents visible and editable by all: contributors can edit the document, readers can view it
• Document visible by all library contributors: contributors can view documents but not edit them and library readers can't view them at all

Note: If your Secured Folder or Document Management library has a public visibility option defined, which gives read or write access to all users on your domain, and you select a public visibility option here, a confirmation message appears indicating that documents may be accessible for all users on the domain. Click Yes to confirm. 

Tip: You can restrict workflow permissions in Document Management libraries and Secured Folders so documents are not shared publicly on your domain. Learn more: Use the API to prevent documents being shared publicly on whole domain. In this case, the public visibility options in the drop-down menu aren't available.

Configure the properties and description permissions

With this feature, the properties and description can be read-only, mandatory or hidden, depending on the workflow state.

1. In the permissions dialog, select the Field permissions tab.

2. You can set each property to Read-only, Mandatory or Hidden for this workflow state.

3. You can set the Description field to Read-only, Mandatory or Hidden for this workflow state.

Important: If a property is set as mandatory, read-only or hidden at the document class level, you can’t change the setting at the workflow state level.

Notes:
– Read-only means that contributors don’t have access to the property in edit mode. Administrators can edit these properties.
– In the initial workflow state, properties can’t be hidden, read-only or mandatory at the same time. This avoids blocking the creation of a document. In any other state, you can combine these settings and a property can be hidden, read-only and mandatory.
– A warning message appears in the Properties tab of the document, indicating the required mandatory property and if an administrator must fill in the property (mandatory/hidden or mandatory/read-only). Learn more: Edit custom properties
– The title is always mandatory. If the title has been set to read-only for this document class, the Read-only box is selected and you can't change it.