Approval

The approval system in Cetegra Catalog is powerful and flexible and can be configured to fit different needs.

Approvals can be configured on a category or product level.

There can also be multiple approval steps that can be useful if different persons should approve in a sequence.

On this page, the different parts of the approval system will be covered.

Add approver #

To add an approval step on a product (or category), click the Form and actions tab, Add submit action and select Require approval.

It is possible to add users, groups or the current user’s closest manager as an approver. It is also possible to add multiple users and/or groups as approvers on the same approval step.

If multiple users/groups have been selected for an approval step, the approval step is approved when one of the selected users (or one of the users in the defined group) has approved the order.

Require approval overview:

• Add users: Select a user. Use the filter to search for users. Multiple users can be added.

• Add group: Select a group. Use the filter to search for groups. Multiple groups can be added.

• Add manager: This option will set the current user’s closest manager as approver. This requires that the AD attribute manager has been set correctly for the business.

• Add input: Add one or more input fields for the approver to fill out while approving. The functionality for the input form is the same as described on the Forms and actions page.

• Add section: Group the different inputs by section, as described here.

• Ask approver to comment: Default comment field that will require the approver to add a comment.

• Auto Approval Groups: If the current user is a member of one of the selected groups, the approval step will be auto-approved.

• Continue if approver declines (used for acting on token using conditions): If the approver declines, the order will continue to the next step. This is useful if you want to act on the token using conditions.

Examples #

One approval step #

The example below shows a product where one of the two selected approvers has to approve the user’s request to be added to the access_0001 AD group.

One approval step has been added, with two approval users selected.

When the step has been approved, the user will be added to the group automatically.

Multiple approval steps #

The below example shows a product where both approvers need to approve the user’s request to be added to the access_0001 AD group. James will have to approve before Emilie receives a notification saying that she has to approve.

Two approval steps have been added, with one approval user per step.

When both steps have been approved, the user will be added to the group automatically.

Approval with input #

In this example, James Blyth is working as a network manager and needs to provide an IP address and VLAN ID before the server can be built automatically.

The approval step is set up with two required text inputs to catch the information from the approver.

After the first approval step is approved and the network information has been provided, the current user’s manager needs to approve before the server will be built.

The email notification and the runbook will start with both input from the order, like server name, operating system and more, and the network info from the approval step.

Read more about how to use the advanced actions system here.

Auto approval #

Here, the approval step is set up to auto-approve if the user is a member of the AD group _DL_Cegal_Develpment. This is useful if you have a group of users that should be approved automatically.

Continue if approver declines #

In some cases, it is useful to continue the order even if the approver declines. When enabling this option, a token name needs to be added. This token can be used in the conditions system to act on the token if the approver declines.

In this case, we want to send the user an email if the order has been declined, with a link to the public version of the system. We will add the token approval_step_1 as a condition and set it to send an email to the user if the value is false (declined).

Override approval step #

A Catalog Manager can override an approval step if needed. This can be useful if the approver is on vacation or if the order is urgent.

The override function is available on the All approvals page.