= Improvements to Metadata workflow =

|| '''Date''' || 2012/09/21 ||
|| '''Contact(s)''' || Heikki Doeleman, Jose García, Steven Smolders||
|| '''Last edited''' || ||
|| '''Status''' || Proposed for vote||
|| '''Assigned to release''' || 2.9 ||
|| '''Resources''' || from AGIV http://www.agiv.be ||
|| '''Ticket #''' || TBD ||

== Overview ==

The current support for workflow in !GeoNetwork is somewhat limited. Metadata can be in one of a number of workflow-related states, but state transitions are not restricted. When a metadata is public, an editor who makes changes and saves, cannot prevent those changes to become visible to the public unless the metadata is made invisible to the public. This proposal introduces somewhat more strict lifecycle transitions along with a mechanism where metadata remains publicly visible even when an editor is in the process of changing it and saving his changes.

=== Proposal Type ===
 * '''Module''': ALL

=== Links ===
 * '''Documents'''
 * '''Email discussions''':
 * '''Other wiki discussions''':

=== Voting History ===
 * 

----

== Motivations ==

 * A well-defined workflow helps increase quality of the metadata. 
 * Keeping the original public version of a metadata public, while an editor is taking time to makes changes to it, helps increase quality of the catalogue.

== Proposal == 

=== stricter state transitions ===

The only state transitions that are allowed, are:

DRAFT -> SUBMITTED

SUBMITTED -> REJECTED

SUBMITTED -> APPROVED

REJECTED -> DRAFT

APPROVED -> DRAFT

(the status RETIRED and UNKNOWN are not considered here).

Note that Administrator users are able to make any state transition anyway.


=== better state awareness through icons ===

To make immediately clear what the state is of a metadata, colourful icons (and the state name) indicate this in the search results and in the metadata view. This information is only displayed to users who are logged in to GeoNetwork.

This is a screenshot of how this looks like in search results in the classic GUI:

[[Image(search-results-classic.png)]]

This is a screenshot of how this looks like in one of the Ext GUIs:

[[Image(status-results-ext.png)]]



=== workspace ===

=== Backwards Compatibility Issues ===

None.

=== New libraries added ===
Nope.

== Risks ==

== Participants ==
Heikki Doeleman, Jose García, Steven Smolders