Publication Checklist

Publication Checklist provides a framework for building out prepublish checks, with flexibility to fit your workflows.

Enabling

This feature is enabled by default, but has no visual effect until you create checks.

The feature can be disabled entirely by setting the modules.workflow.publication-checklist option to false:

{
	"extra": {
		"altis": {
			"modules": {
				"workflow": {
					"publication-checklist": false
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

To set advanced options (detailed below), set this option to an object. The enabled key should be set to true:

{
	"extra": {
		"altis": {
			"modules": {
				"workflow": {
					"publication-checklist": {
						"enabled": true
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

Creating checks

The core of a check is a function that receives the post's data and meta, and returns a Status object. This status object indicates whether publish should be blocked or not.

For example, to enforce setting a value for the "foo" meta key:

use function Altis\Workflow\PublicationChecklist\register_prepublish_check;
use Altis\Workflow\PublicationChecklist\Status;

add_action( 'altis.publication-checklist.register_prepublish_checks', function () {
	register_prepublish_check( 'foo', [
		'run_check' => function ( array $post, array $meta ) : Status {
			if ( isset( $meta['foo'] ) ) {
				return new Status( Status::COMPLETE, 'Foo completed' );
			}

			return new Status( Status::INCOMPLETE, 'Missing foo data' );
		},
	] );
} );

Checks are registered via the Altis\Workflow\PublicationChecklist\register_prepublish_check function with a unique ID. This function should be called on the altis.publication-checklist.register_prepublish_checks action.

Your check function receives the post data as an array, and the post's meta data as an array. Your function should only use this data to run the check, as this may represent data before it is saved to the database. Specifically, your function's signature should be:

function ( array $post, array $meta ) : Status;

Your function must return a Altis\Workflow\PublicationChecklist\Status object. This object is marked as either complete (allow publishing), incomplete (block publishing), or informational (show as failed, but allow publishing). This status object takes the status type (which should be either Status::COMPLETE, Status::INCOMPLETE, or Status::INFO) and a human-readable message.

You can additionally pass data with the status object, which can be used on the frontend to assist with rendering.

Displaying check status

By default, Publication Checklist will render a simple checklist of all checks.

You can override a specific item to render richer UI if needed. For example, you may wish to integrate deeply into the block editor, or allow users to correct failing checks inline. This UI is directly inserted into the React element tree and replaces the default output.

Publication Checklist exposes a altis-publishing-workflow.item.{check_id} filter using withFilters to allow overriding the list item component.

For example, to wrap the default status message with a link to a documentation page for the foo check:

import { Fragment } from '@wordpress/element';

addFilter( 'altis-publishing-workflow.item.image-texts', 'foo/link-message', () => {
	return props => {
		return (
			<Fragment>
				{ props.renderStatusIcon() }
				<a href="http://example.com/">{ props.message }</a>
			</Fragment>
		);
	};
} );

Your component receives the following props:

const propTypes = {
	// Check ID.
	name: PropTypes.string.isRequired,

	// Human-readable message returned from the backend.
	message: PropTypes.string.isRequired,

	// Status string.
	status: PropTypes.oneOf( [ 'complete', 'incomplete', 'info' ] ).isRequired,

	// Function to render the status of the current check.
	// () => ReactElement
	renderStatusIcon: PropTypes.func.isRequired,

	// Additional data from the backend.
	data: PropTypes.any,
};

To enable advanced functionality, you may want to wrap this component in selectors which provide data about the post. Note that the backend acts as the canonical source of all check data, so changes to check status will require saving to the backend to take effect.

Enforcing checks

By default, Publication Checklist will display a warning if some items are incomplete, with a prompt to allow publishing anyway.

To enforce these checks and block publication, set the modules.workflow.publication-checklist.block-on-failing option to true:

{
	"extra": {
		"altis": {
			"modules": {
				"workflow": {
					"publication-checklist": {
						"enabled": true,
						"block-on-failing": true
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

This will change the UI to disable the publish button, display a user-facing message that checks must be completed, and block requests to publish the post.

Disabling the list view

Publication Checklist will add a Tasks column to the Posts list screen showing the status of each post. This column is only shown if statuses have been registered.

To hide this column, set the modules.workflow.publication-checklist.hide-column option to true:

{
	"extra": {
		"altis": {
			"modules": {
				"workflow": {
					"publication-checklist": {
						"enabled": true,
						"hide-column": true
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

This will hide the Tasks column.