3.3 Task Concept: Developer

Conceptual Overview

A Task is a draft working space within a Project

A Task is a draft working space in which you can safely edit without affecting the Approved Content or the content of other Tasks. Tasks allow draft changes to be bundled together, reviewed, and previewed in a staging environment before – subject to approval – being merged into the Approved Content.

As a developer, the Components you create exist within Tasks until they are completed and merged into the Approved Content. This means content editors won’t be able to use your Components unless they are working in the same Task or your Task has been completed.

Users may collaborate together on the same Task or work independently on their own.

Content that is eligible for release – the Approved Content – can never be directly edited; all content changes begin within a Task.

Conceptual Diagram

Reviewing and Completing Tasks

Tasks are kept in sync with the Approved Content, except where edits have been made

Once reviewed, Tasks may either be completed or abandoned. If completed, Task changes are merged into the Approved Content, ready for release. If abandoned, the changes are discarded.

Tasks are kept in sync with the Approved Content as it changes: when a Task is completed and the Approved Content updates, all other Tasks are updated too – except where an edit has been made in a Task, which takes precedence. This means you’re always working alongside the latest Approved Content, while keeping the content changes you’ve made in your Task.

When a Task is completed, users working in other Tasks may notice real-time updates in fields that have not been edited.

Approved Content changes will apply to but not be visible in fields that are currently being edited, and saving such edits will supersede any incoming changes.

Completing Multiple Tasks

The following diagram shows how Tasks and the Approved Content are updated when multiple Tasks are being worked on and completed at the same time.

Notes

Tasks cannot be published to production environments; only the Approved Content can.

Changes to non-content data, such as users, roles, and Workflows, are not encapsulated by Tasks and can therefore be modified at any time within a Project, regardless of the currently active Task.

Under the hood, Task edits are recorded as a list of changes upon the Approved Content. Conversely, anything in a Task that has not been edited is not part of this changeset and is simply the Approved Content itself as it continues to change.

User Journeys

1. Managing Tasks