Publishing Flows & Actions

A flow is the list of steps one of your titles goes through from manuscript to launch. An action is a single step: one job to do. The Actions page collects every outstanding step across all your titles.

Flows are optional. You can use Pubblish purely for catalog management and never start one.

The Actions page

Open Actions in the sidebar. The sidebar item shows a badge with your count of open actions.

The page has two tabs: Open and Completed. The open list has four columns: Action, Title, Start and Due. From a row you can:

  • Complete: click the tick at the start of the row to mark the step done.
  • Do it here: on an action Pubblish created for you, click the play icon to do the job in a dialog. You stay on the page.
  • Edit: click the pencil to change the action’s details, such as its due date or notes.
  • More options: the menu at the end of the row.
    • Skip sets a flow step aside without doing it.
    • Delete removes the action.
    • Some actions also offer Skip all for title or Skip all for edition. These set aside every remaining action for that title or edition.

To add a one-off action by hand, fill in the quick-add form at the top of the list and click Add. One-off actions don’t need a flow.

Use the filters above the list to narrow it by title, stage, source, or due date. You can also search by name.

Starting a flow for a title

You start a flow from the title itself.

  1. Open the title. Near the top of its edit page is a bar labeled Overview:. Click it to open the card behind it.
  2. In that card, click Publishing flow to open the panel.
  3. In the Start a publishing flow… dropdown, pick a blueprint. A blueprint is a ready-made checklist. Pubblish ships a Standard blueprint. Its steps run through four stages: Prepare, Produce, Publish, and Promote.
  4. Click Start.

The panel lists the flow’s steps. Tick a step to complete it. Filter the steps by stage using the chips at the top. All shows everything. A step may say it is waiting on earlier steps. You can still tick it early. Nothing stops you.

To remove a flow, click the × next to its name in the panel. Its open actions are dismissed.

Following your flows

On the Actions page, click Flows to see every running flow in one table. The table shows:

  • the Title
  • the Flow
  • its Progress
  • the Next step
  • the Target date
  • the Projected finish

A flow projected to miss its target date shows an At risk badge.

Changing the blueprints

Click Manage blueprints to reach the blueprint editor. The button is in three places:

  • the Actions page
  • the Flows page
  • a title’s Publishing flow panel

Only team members allowed to edit blueprints see it. By default that is the owner and administrators. The Flows card on the Tools page opens the Flows page. From there, Manage blueprints is one more click.

The Standard blueprints are read-only. To change one, click Duplicate beside it. Then edit your copy. In your own blueprints you can rename steps, add steps, and reorder them with the chevron buttons. Stage order is fixed and cannot be changed.

Editing a blueprint affects flows you start afterwards. Flows already running keep the steps they started with.