Avoiding the workflow "contribution step" trap

Ever had a rejected content item you couldn't do anything with? Or maybe it was something you put in a contribution folder and then realised it was stuck there? UCM workflow has a "contribution step" trap you need to avoid.

Empty a metadata field at revision checkin

An issue that dogged me for ages was that metadata fields can't be reset to empty for a revision checkin if they already have something in them. For example, if a content item at revision one has some comments then the checkin form for revision two will display the same comments. There's no way to clear the field for the user. Even if they delete the comments and then submit, the comments reappear! The only way to get rid of them is to type something else. But there is a better way.

Thumbnail search in Content Server #2

Just a quick update to an older post Thumbnail search in Content Server where I talked about forcing the search template to show thumbnails. My tip was to add a parameter to the URL but this is a bit clumsy, the contributor will probably never do it. Let's do it for them!

Go to Configuration Manager and create a rule that is only activated on a "search" condition. Click on the Side Effects tab and enter the key=value pair. Now add the rule to your Profiles for images and presto! everyone's image search uses the thumbnail view.

Add a "future release" icon to contribution mode

Ken posed a good question on the intradoc forums. He wrote:

Our editors have requested that we add a "Future Release" indicator to the Site Studio contribution mode screen, similar to the workflow icon that can appear... Does anyone know what the syntax for accessing the metadata of the content is?

I thought it was a great idea, so I looked into it.

Hiding primaryFile for SiteStudio

Kyle has a great article on hiding the primaryFile field from Content Server checkin pages. I just wanted to augment the solution by mentioning a way to hide the field only from SiteStudio checkin pages.