An approval template is the blueprint for approval workflows that can be created for a feature or a set of observations with the aim to approve them or deny approval for them. Approval templates are defined in domains and are propagated downward in the domain tree, i.e. if an approval template is defined for a specific domain it is available in all of its subordinate domains.

The approval templates available for defining the Template assignment in a specific context is defined by the domain of the context.

To create or edit approval templates you need the domain permission modify approval templates. Approval templates can be read by any user who has read permission on the domain the template belongs to.

The Application Server only allows to save valid approval templates, i.e. templates that have a name, at least one stage and at least one obligation in each defined stage.

Approval stages, obligations and fulfillment criteria

Each approval template defines a number of approval stages, at least one approval stage must be defined for each approval template, there is no limit on the number of stages. Approval stages have a specific sequence in which they will be conducted when an approval workflow is created out of the approval template. Within each stage the approval template defines the users and/or user groups that shall approve (or deny approval). These users or user groups then have approval obligation within this stage of the approval template. The approval obligations within a stage can be fulfilled by the users in any sequence.

Each stage has a stage fulfillment criteria. The stage fulfillment criteria defines how many users with the approval obligation have to actually approve for the stage to be closed. This allows you to implement a rule like 'at least 2 users out of a user group A have to approve in this stage'.

Note that when an approval workflow is created based on an approval template the user groups that have obligation for a stage in the template are expanded to the members of this group - therefore the fulfillment criteria really defines the number of users that have to approve.

An approval stage in an approval workflow derived from a template will be considered as closed as soon as the stage fulfillment condition is satisfied.

If the fulfillment criteria is set to zero all users with obligation have to approve, if set to a number greater zero this number of users have to approve for the stage to be closed. When an approval workflow is created based on an approval template the Application Server will check if the fulfillment criteria is greater than the number of obligations and in that case will automatically reduce the fulfillment criteria to the number of users with approval obligation.

Every approval stage also defines the settings for approval time span and automatic approval. See below for details.

Approval security

Each approval template defines the level of approval security it requires. This level defines the actions a user has to take when he wants to fulfill an obligation in a stage of an approval workflow. The available security levels are listed in Table 1.

Table1: Approval template security settings

Automatic Approval and expiration

Every stage in an approval template can define an approval time-span for this stage. Together with the setting for automatic approval that is also defined with each stage this provides the possibility to automatically approve a stage if users do not approve in the defined time-span, or to automatically close the workflow with approval denied if users did not fulfill their obligations within this time-span.

Whenever a new stage is started within an approval workflow the timestamp of the stage start is recorded. If the approval process template the workflow was created from defines a approval time-span for the stage the user with approval obligation in that stage stage can approve (or deny approval) till StageStartTime + ApprovalTimeSpan.

If after StageStartTime + ApprovalTimeSpan the stage's fulfillment criteria is not satisfied it depends on the auto approval setting of the stage how the system handles this expired stages. If auto approval is active for that stage the approval status for each approval obligation is set to automatically approved, else the approval process will be closed with status approval denied.

The Application Server will automatically search for expired approvals in intervals of 30 minutes. I.e. you might see an approval obligation or an approval workflow that is slightly overdue but not yet marked as expired.