Statuses? Like: published, protected, private, draft, deprecated, redirected? The radio button where you get to select one on the right? Or Post types? Like: Post, Page, Link, and whatever you might create via your Global settings tab? The drop-down box next to the post title when you post?

For statuses it's easy: published the whole world can see, protected only members of the blog can see, private only you can see on the front side, draft is not visible up front and has not pinged (because it hasn't been published), deprecated is for when you want to delete a post from the front side but don't want to actually delete it, and redirected is for when a post that other web pages are linking to needs to point to a totally different URL.

The Post Types option is really weird. The best example of what to do with post types is the new version of the sticky post. See a thread with "not a bug" in the title for how to do it, but basically you create a post type "sticky" then sort your blog by ptype_ID and it shows up on top of all other posts. I've started using post type to slightly decorate my titles. Like, post type "hack" gets a bit of red border, type "plugin" gets a green border, and post type "obsolete" gets a line-through effect.

Another use for an existing post type is if you post as type "page" then it doesn't show up in the list of posts but will show up in the "page list" widget. Good for posts that would be "about me" or "about this blog" or "how to register" - that type of thing.

Nicely explained, even though I knew most of that, it brought more to light and gave me a few more ideas. Thank you.

Hi sims Glad you understand :oops:

Either I'm as thick as two short planks or I'm blind as a bat or my computer does show me something. probably both the first two as I have no idea how to use one of the statuses I created.

Hi EdB

The drop-down box next to the post title when you post?

I don't have one other than the language, maybe its my skin? Will switch to the default evopress or something.

I do have the post-type drop down next to the URL box but that is the same as always with the four default types {post, link, page and podcast and three 'reserved'

I've created statuses {red, green, blue and black} but that's as far as I can get ???

Tried other skins for the blogs and the dashboard?

It's not your public skin that matters because you would be in admin side to write a post yah? BTW my bad: the "Type" drop-down box is next to the "link to URL" field when on the expert tab.

See I asked about both because as far as I know one can not add a "status", which I understand to be the "visibility/sharing" radio button option on the right. One can add "Type" options which is the drop-down selection box that you seem to not have.

BTW for admin side I use the "chicago" skin and do not have the other two available else I would test to see if the drop-down is present in the other two admin skins. You might want to change to that, but since you already experimented with testing I have to assume we're either back to the "visibility/sharing" radio button or you have the drop-down selector in a different place.

Hi EdB

EdB wrote:

It's not your public skin that matters because you would be in admin side to write a post yah? BTW my bad: the "Type" drop-down box is next to the "link to URL" field when on the expert tab.

Yeap! got that

EdB wrote:

See I asked about both because as far as I know one can not add a "status", which I understand to be the "visibility/sharing" radio button option on the right. One can add "Type" options which is the drop-down selection box that you seem to not have.

I have the type by the URL is that what you mean?

EdB wrote:

BTW for admin side I use the "chicago" skin and do not have the other two available else I would test to see if the drop-down is present in the other two admin skins. You might want to change to that, but since you already experimented with testing I have to assume we're either back to the "visibility/sharing" radio button or you have the drop-down selector in a different place.

No different with Chicago.

I have the "visibility/sharing" radio buttons but the statuses I added are not there either.

The only place they show is in the search section. So I can search for statuses but can't find how to add them. ??

Are we talking about this?

[url=http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i133/sims_album/b2e/?action=view&current=posts.jpg]http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i133/sims_album/b2e/posts.jpg[/url]

If so I think you need to enable >blog settings>features>'Use advanced perms' and or 'Use workflow' (I'm pretty sure its 'use workflow')

Did you create the statuses via global settings>post statuses?
If so I think this will help.

Hope that helps.

OK Thanks Ed, and Simms,

Yeap! I just got the hint from the reply from fplanque to redraven's topic 'How do I alter post priority?'
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=15213

Sorted now :)

I thought the status would allow me to prioritise the posts so that they could be highlighted.

I think I have read that this can be dome. but will leave that later and to another topic.

Bye

I'll be darned! Learn something new every day yah? The "advanced work flow" thing is something I don't use so there you go.

EdB wrote:

See I asked about both because as far as I know one can not add a "status", which I understand to be the "visibility/sharing" radio button option on the right. One can add "Type" options which is the drop-down selection box that you seem to not have.

Hello.

I'm still confused about the functionality of the 'Post Statuses' tab in Global Settings. I want to distinguish 'Draft' that is requiring post approval from 'Draft' for a post to come back later and finish. Therefore, I added 'In Progress' in Post Statuses expecting that it would be available in Visibility/Sharing -- NOT. So, how to create this new status?

Having someone create a post and put it in Draft status and it getting approved when it wasn't ready for approval is what I'm trying to avoid happening.

Thanks in advance.

Why not use draft && protected ?

¥

Thanks for your reply, ¥åßßå.

Interesting idea - I have just three questions:

1) how to make a post both draft & protected (radio buttons input is only allowing one or the other in Post/Comments)

2) as Admin who sees everything, when it is in draft status, although protected, would I see that it is 'protected' in 'Recent Drafts' so that I don't mistakenly approve it?

3) Post Statuses tab - I still haven't found how to use it. I see it in filters but if I can't assign that status to a post, then what is its purpose? EDIT: Now, I see it is added to workflow task status (missed that before).

Thanks again in advance.

1) urm, based on your scenario "draft == draft" "protected == post awaiting admin approval" ?

2) you can't, but see #1

3) yay , an easy answer :D

¥

Thanks ¥åßßå.

1) Not quite: I believe that draft == post awaiting admin approval (right?)

As admin, I'll see all posts in draft status for a given blog which I will assume are awaiting approval based on what I've read in other threads.

The part I'm concerned with is making that assumption when one of the bloggers put their post in draft status to revise or finish later and I approve it and it goes public prematurely.

If it is in protected status, wouldn't I still see it if it is also in draft status (showing up in Recent Drafts list) or would there be something like the words 'Protected Status' even if it is also in draft status if I'm able to put in in both draft && protected statuses?

If there is no way to distinguish as an admin, a post in say, Protected Draft status(es) from the normal Draft status, then I'd probably need to add a new 'post_status' value e.g. 'In Progress' or 'Draft - don't approve' or something else to prevent premature approval.

I hope this is clear (at least clearer than mud 8| )

Thanks again.

1) draft == "draft" ... unfinished

2) you can't have a post that's both protected and draft, so just publish protected ones ;)

¥

Again, thanks.

I guess I'm still confused from a thread I read about approvals - I'd have to look it up to reference it but in the meantime...

I thought it said for those bloggers whose posts must be approved before becoming public, they would be put into Draft status after saving which will then show up in Recent Drafts while awaiting approval.

I was hoping that status under that scenario was NOT the case because the meaning of Draft would become ambiguous. Draft should mean 'not ready for primetime.'

So...

1) after enabling User and Group perms, in order to have either a user or a group be required to have their posts reviewed by the blog owner or admin, which box(es) should be checked?

2) but, what if they also want to save the post for later editing whereby they would want to utililze the Draft status - which box to select for this?

2) then after they save their post because it is now complete and ready for publishing, with the perms set in 1) and 2) above, which heading in the blog's dashboard will that post be listed under that lets the admin or blog owner know it is complete and ready for publishing and therefore approval?

Thanks.

heh, ok, lets back up a smidge.

For the most part the statuses mean what you want them to be. Personally I use draft for posts that *really* are draft ( only visible by me, but I'm an admin so I have no idea if they're visible to admins as well ;) ), and then I move them to protected when I'm ready for the mentally imbalanced few who know where the masochists area is... eventually they get moved to "published" ... and then I have to suffer the myspace users :|

So, just untick "published" for each group and and change your filters to "show me protected posts"

They'll know it's been approved when it appears in their feeds ;)

¥

Thanks again, as usual.

Based on your scenario, you being the admin, for your bloggers who need the admin's approval (say admin is the owner), how would you be alerted that their post is awaiting approval - what status would you see since it wouldn't be draft AND how do you get b2evo to set that status showing the post is awaiting approval?

Thanks.

It would be "protected" so I'd just filter protected posts and any I saw would be needing approval.

You just click "protected" when saving your finished draft

¥

Thanks again for your reply and ideas for me to ponder, ¥åßßå.

After briefly contemplating, I'm not real sure which way to go, yet. But, with the multiple bloggers I am anticipating and wanting to keep training time to a minimum yet be able to have everyone utilize all of the options available as is including using the 'protected' status as their 'Members Only' feature, I am going to try to find a way to add a new status that is clear and unambiguous that distinctly alerts the blog owner that a post is ready for approval. This will only be reserved for selected new bloggers or those on 'probation' if they are behaving inappropriately.

I wished I did not have to go this route to hack the files but having this ability may save me questions time by bloggers and headaches in the future while simultaneously not showing these 'not ready for primetime' posts to other members either until officially approved.

So far, I've found the following:

+ $post_status array for adding new statuses (statti :p ha-ha) defined in inc/_vars.inc.php + visibility/sharing array in inc/items/model/_item.funcs.php (visibility_select() defined) + inc/items/model/_item.class.php EDIT: ADDED (1/4/09 p.m.) + inc/items/items.ctrl.php EDIT: ADDED (1/4/09 p.m.) + inc/comments/views/_comment.form.php + inc/comments/model/_comment.class.php EDIT: ADDED (1/4/09 p.m.) + inc/items/views/_item_expert.form.php (calls visibility_select()) + inc/collections/views/_coll_group_perm.form.php EDIT: ADDED + inc/collections/views/_coll_user_perm.form.php EDIT: ADDED + inc/collections/model/_blog.funcs.php EDIT: ADDED (1/4/09 p.m.) + inc/collections/model/_blog.class.php EDIT: ADDED (1/5/09 a.m.) + inc/users/model/_group.class.php EDIT: ADDED + inc/users/model/_user.class.php EDIT: ADDED + inc/dashboard/dashboard.ctrl.php EDIT: ADDED (1/4/09 p.m.)[/list:u] Revise 3 tables: EDIT ADDED (1/5/09 a.m.)
+ bloggroups + blogusers + items__item[/list:u] I haven't yet figured out how to get the new status (awaiting_approval) to show up in AdminUI Posts/Comments after I added it in both $post_status and visibility_select() nor in the blog's User perms and Group perms. If anyone can figure this out, please feel free to chime in. ;) UPDATE: I believe only one more 'to do' left: Get the User and/or Group perms to save the new checked field. The previous files have been updated with the new status. Upon save, the new checked box value for 'Apvl' (abbrev for approval) becomes 'unchecked.' The new status needs to write to the database tables (bloggroups ALIAS T_coll_group_perms AND blogusers ALIAS T_coll_user_perms). I would think that once these value of the checkbox in User and/or Group perms is written to the database along with the others e.g. Drft, Publ, then Apvl will show up in Posts/Comments with the other post statuses. (see inc/users/model/_group.class.php AND inc/users/model/_user.class.php) :-/ Assistance with writing this value to database would be welcomed. Thanks again - you've been very helpful in furthering my understanding about how to get the most out of b2evo. I know I still have a ways to go. :)

Hello.

FYI -
I've made some more edits to my previous post.

I assume you've also altered the db table ?

	'T_items__item' => array(
		'Creating table for Posts',
		"CREATE TABLE T_items__item (
			post_ID                     int(11) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
			post_parent_ID              int(11) unsigned NULL,
			post_creator_user_ID        int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
			post_lastedit_user_ID       int(11) unsigned NULL,
			post_assigned_user_ID       int(11) unsigned NULL,
			post_datestart              DATETIME NOT NULL DEFAULT '2000-01-01 00:00:00',
			post_datedeadline           datetime NULL,
			post_datecreated            datetime NULL,
			post_datemodified           DATETIME NOT NULL DEFAULT '2000-01-01 00:00:00',
			post_status                 enum('published','deprecated','protected','private','draft','redirected') NOT NULL default 'published',

¥

Good point ¥åßßå -- thanks!!! I now see that change in the database needed to be done.

Now, that makes the solution even closer, although the 'Apvl' box still does not remain checked nor writes to the item__items table, yet and is therefore eluding me. :-/

There is still probably only one thing missing that is causing that. Once this is conquered, this feature should be working properly. Adding the feature that will display the list of posts awaiting approval for a given blog will be a piece of cake as I already know how to add it. Maybe it could be called, 'Posts awaiting moderation' to be consistent with 'Comments awaiting moderation.'

Thanks again.

Hello again.

I'm appending this to my last post:

Q: Is there a chance that the problem pertains to needing to modify this file 'inc/collections/model/_blog.funcs.php'? If so, where to begin?

Also, FYI - I added more files found to my earlier post above. Some of them don't require revising.

Thanks.

inc/collections/model/_blog.class.php ( approx 1114 )

	/**
	 * Get allowed post status for current user in this blog
	 *
	 * @todo make default a Blog param
	 *
	 * @param string status to start with. Empty to use default.
	 * @return string authorized status; NULL if none
	 */
	function get_allowed_item_status( $status = NULL )
	{
    /**
		 * @var User
		 */
		global $current_User;
		global $default_post_status;

		if( empty( $status ) )
		{
			$status = $default_post_status;
		}
		if( ! $current_User->check_perm( 'blog_post!'.$status, 'edit', false, $this->ID ) )
		{ // We need to find another one:
			$status = NULL;

			if( $current_User->check_perm( 'blog_post!published', 'edit', false, $this->ID ) )
				$status = 'published';
			elseif( $current_User->check_perm( 'blog_post!protected', 'edit', false, $this->ID ) )
				$status = 'protected';
			elseif( $current_User->check_perm( 'blog_post!private', 'edit', false, $this->ID ) )
				$status = 'private';
			elseif( $current_User->check_perm( 'blog_post!draft', 'edit', false, $this->ID ) )
				$status = 'draft';
			elseif( $current_User->check_perm( 'blog_post!deprecated', 'edit', false, $this->ID ) )
				$status = 'deprecated';
			elseif( $current_User->check_perm( 'blog_post!redirected', 'edit', false, $this->ID ) )
				$status = 'redirected';
		}
		return $status;
	}

¥

Hey ¥åßßå - now, we're cookin' with gas!

I added the new status in

function get_allowed_item_status( $status = NULL )
{
...
}

as you suggested AND I added it in 'inc/collections/model/_blog.funcs.php' in the 'else' and now the value of the new status is getting to '_blog.funcs.php'!

Next, after updating 2 more tables (bloggroups & blogusers) with the new status as you suggested for 'item__items' above, now the value writes to the database!

HOORAY!!!!! This part is a wrap! Works like a charm! :D
This was a tough hack...

Thanks sooo.... very much!!! I can now have this feature nearly on autopilot and let everyone use draft as draft!....how COOL is that!

Hello again.

Quick question:

In 'inc/collections/model/_blog.funcs.php' $easy_mode in the section that explicitly mentions 'deprecated', 'protected', etc., where would I add the new 'await_approval' -- would it be case 'editor' or case 'contrib' AND how to determine? :?:

Thanks again in advance.

I'd imagine that you'd want the new status to be available to contributors so that either editors or admins can publish them ;)

¥

Thanks ¥åßßå.

Q: What is easy mode anyway? Is it some mode before advanced perms is enabled? Where would I see it in action in comparison to the advanced perms 'mode'? e.g. I don't have advanced perms enabled for Linkblogs and I as admin still see all of the edit options that are utilized when advanced perms is enabled.

Thanks again.

Easy mode is just a quick way of checking permissions level, basically it saves you checking a bunch of individual perms to see if any are true.

¥

Thanks for your reply, ¥åßßå.

Where/how would I see it in action in comparison to the advanced perms 'mode'?

Thanks.

Found 3 occurrences in 3 files for the word: blogperms_get_easy2
/inc/collections/model/_blog.funcs.php (283) function blogperms_get_easy2( $perms, $context = 'user' )
/inc/collections/views/_coll_group_perm.form.php (456) $user_easy_group = blogperms_get_easy2( $row, 'group' );
/inc/collections/views/_coll_user_perm.form.php (462) $user_easy_group = blogperms_get_easy2( $row );

¥

Oh... I thought it was a feature I'd see via the AdminUI.

Thanks ¥åßßå.

A plugin with a "Submit for Approval" would have solved all this yah?

Personally I'd have gone with telling users "draft means you are working on it, protected means you are done and want it approved" because it is very simple and you have to educate users anyway, but wow after reading three pages I kept wondering why this is not a plugin with a button that lets restricted bloggers tell the approving authorities to do me.

Thanks for your reply, EdB.

It's good to hear how others use various b2evo features.

Personally, I plan to preserve the use of the 'protected' status for posts I don't mind other members seeing OR purposely wanting other members to see OR to hide the demo blog posts for future testing or for demonstration or training purposes while not making those posts readily available to the general public nor using that status in a way that could cause a post to be published by mistake if inadequate training were provided by myself, other admins or blog 'owners.' This is why I added the 'awaiting approval' status.

For me, this new status is unambiguous and hopefully, is self-explanatory to everyone without training or with minimum training required. This new feature provides me with additional greater latitude and flexibility with b2evo. I don't expect others to share my reasoning as I may run my business differently than others.

Again, thanks.