Workflow - the "draft" workspace
So far we have been working in TYPO3's "Live Workspace". In this workspace, each time you save some content (by clicking 
, 
or 
) your changes are immediately visible to anyone browsing your page. For doing small corrections this is fine. For making major changes you might like to be able to take your time; editing, saving, reviewing, having a cup of tea, making some more changes, sleeping on it, showing it to others etc. before finally releasing your new version to the world.
TYPO3 achieves this by allowing you to work in a separate, draft workspace. Once you begin to do this there are two copies of your page:
- One in the LIVE workspace - this is the one the public sees;
- One in the draft workspace - you can see this one (and modify it) but the public cannot.
Once you are happy with the modifications you have made in the draft workspace you can publish the page. This copies the page and its content from the draft workspace to the LIVE workspace so that the new version becomes visible to the public.
A draft workspace may be shared by several users each of whom will be able to see the others' changes. An individual user may have access to several such draft workspaces - but can only select one at a time. There is only ever one LIVE workspace.
Selecting a draft workspace
Fig. 1. Selecting the "CS Draft" workspace.Draft workspaces have to be enabled for your account. Please ask if you would like this done.
To select the draft workspace use the drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner of the TYPO3 screen (see Fig. 1). Three workspaces are shown; the LIVE workspace, the generic draft workspace and one called CS Draft which we select.
Creating a new version of an existing page
With the current set-up there is no need to take any explicit action to create a draft version. As soon as you begin to edit a page in the CS Draft workspace a draft will be created. Any changes you make now will affect your draft but will leave the online version unaltered. (You can check this by switching back to the LIVE workspace.)
Once you have saved a draft you can safely logout. You will find the draft is still there next time you login and select the CS Draft workspace.
Where am I and what's going on?
Fig. 2. Indications that the draft workspace is activeObviously it is important to be aware of whether you are in the LIVE workspace or a draft one. TYPO3 gives you two clues that you are in a draft workspace. These are illustrated in Fig. 2:
- The background to the TYPO3 title bar changes to a stripy-orangey colour;
- Pages for which drafts exist are highlighted with a different coloured background. (Note that at present this seems to work OK for new pages but not for modified ones);
At any time you can swap between the LIVE and draft workspaces by means of the box shown in Fig. 1.
Publishing your draft
Once you are satisfied with your draft version you may want to show it to others to review. Finally you will want to move it into the LIVE workspace - i.e. to publish it. The various ways to do this are discussed in the next section.
