Channel canvas and approval workflow

What is this about?

The channel canvas is a channel’s configuration view. It shows all building blocks from which ALLMEDIA.AI creates and publishes posts for this channel as connected tiles. The canvas has two modes:

• Content creation („Inhaltserstellung“): brand voice, content structure, target audiences, languages, AI model and knowledge stores. In addition, there is the AI disclosure station and a test generation.
• Workflow: the path of a post after creation, i.e. post-processing, media pipelines, approvals and publishing.

Via the Approvals („Freigaben“) station you define whether posts of this channel must be confirmed by an authorized person before publishing.

Prerequisites

• An existing channel (see Create a channel in ALLMEDIA.AI).
• A screen of at least tablet width. On a smartphone, the app opens the classic channel view instead of the canvas.

Step by step

1. Open the channel. Go to Content → Channels and click the channel. The canvas opens in Content creation mode.
2. Assign building blocks. In a tile, click Select, Add or Change and choose the matching object in the dialog. Brand voice, content structure and AI model are single selections. You can assign several target audiences, languages and knowledge stores.
3. Test. Enter a topic in the Test generation („Test-Generierung“) tile and click Start test („Test starten“). This shows you what a post looks like with the current configuration.
4. Switch to the workflow. Click Workflow at the top. There you attach post-processing routines and media pipelines and link the channel connection under Publishing („Veröffentlichung“). With the Automatic media generation switch, linked media pipelines create images or videos for every new post.
5. Set up approvals for the channel. Click the Approvals station. In the Configure approvals window you see the workspace default. If the approval mode is Per channel, you switch on approval for this channel with Channel override („Kanal-Override“) and choose under Recipients: Specific users, All team members or By role.
6. Define workspace-wide rules. Via Configure all approvals („Alle Freigaben konfigurieren“) (or Plan → Approvals → Settings) you open the Configure approvals page. There you enable Approval required and choose the approval mode, the Lead time, the Auto-approval and, in Global (all channels) mode, the Notification recipients. In Per channel mode, the recipients are instead set for each channel with approval switched on. Then click Save.

How an approval works

• The approval email goes to the recipients at the set Lead time before the scheduled publishing date. You can choose from 30 minutes to 7 days or a custom value between 5 minutes and 30 days. 60 minutes is preset.
• The selected recipients can approve. The workspace owner can always approve.
• You can decide in the app under Plan → Approvals (the bell also shows open approvals) or directly via the link in the approval email. The link is valid for 3 days and requires a confirmation in the browser.
• Approve sets the post to scheduled. Reject sets it back to draft, optionally with a reason. A decision can be reversed with Undo as long as the post has not yet been published.
• With Auto-approval (60 minutes, 2, 4 or 24 hours), a post is approved automatically if nobody responds by then. If it is set to Disabled, the post waits for a decision.

Limits

• There is exactly one approval stage. Multi-stage approval chains are not possible.
• Lead time and auto-approval apply to the whole workspace. Per channel, you only set whether approval is required and who grants it.
• In the Global (all channels) approval mode, the rule applies to every channel. The channel switch is then locked.
• Channels without approval publish scheduled posts without confirmation.
• If you disable the approval workflow, posts with the status “Awaiting approval” are reset to “Scheduled” and published without further approval. The app asks first.
• “Remove” in a tile only removes the link to the channel. The object itself remains in the workspace.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I see open approvals?

Under Plan → Approvals. The number of open approvals appears as a counter on the menu item; new requests are also shown via the bell.

Can people approve without signing in?

The approval email goes to workspace members. Via the link in the email they can approve or reject in the browser without opening the app. How to involve external people is described in the article Involving external reviewers (guest approvals).

Why is the Approvals station dimmed?

The station is part of the chain as soon as the workspace default Approval required is active. In Per channel mode it shows “Disabled for this channel” („Für diesen Kanal deaktiviert“) until you switch on the Channel override for the channel.

Related articles

• Individual publishing & approval workflows
• Defining content structures
• Media pipelines for automatic images
• Channel objects in detail