Approve project components

When you're working in a project where you've collected components, you easily can let other reviewers know that a component is ready to work on by giving it an approved state.

Approval requirements:
  • You must have at least one of the following roles or permissions:
    • Be an administrator.
    • Non-admins must be added to the Content Browser's can_approve module property. Follow the steps in: Control who can approve components.
    • You must have permissions to update the component.

      Otherwise, the Approve option is greyed out and unavailable.

  • Permissions can't be blocked. A content owner or administrator can set permissions to deny access to components or folders. If your permissions to content has been blocked, and you are not an administrator, you cannot use the Approve option in a project's Content pane.
  • The component must be unlocked or have a green Approval lock.
  • Before you approve a component, do all the following to prevent seeing errors:

  • After you approve a component in Inspire, to help avoid accidental editing of approved content:

    • The approved component may be locked with a green system lock.

      An administrator can control if a system lock is placed on the component after a user approves it. By default, this optional feature is set to false, and a lock is not placed on a component after approval.

    • This action happens regardless of whether the approval requires a signature or not.
    • To edit an approved component, you must unlock it by Unapproving it.

Before you begin

You may be prevented from selecting a component to approve if the ApprovalNotRequired tag has been attached to the component. For more details, read Exclude a file from approval using a tag.

To approve project components:

  1. Click Projects_TopMenuOpt Projects.
  2. On the Project Management tab, to open a project, double-click it.

    You can also open a project by clicking the Options menu and selecting Open.

  3. In the Content pane, click expand all .
  4. Select the checkboxes for the unlocked, draft components you want to approve.

    You should see the following icons before the name: Unlocked, and Draft.

  5. In the Selected Components pane, click the More menu and then select Approve components.

  6. On the confirmation screen, click Yes.

  7. If an electronic signature is required, On the Electronic Signature screen, enter your Full Name and click Submit.
    • Do not include underscores or email addresses.
    • You must use the name as it appears in your user profile.
    • To see what this is, click the Profile icon.
    • For example: Jane Doe.
    • You only have to enter your name once to sign all selected components.

  8. If you are required to authenticate your account:
    1. On the log in screen, next to the lock, enter your password.

      Notes:

      • You don't have to re-enter your username. Inspire displays your account's email address for you.

      • You must use the same password that you log in to Inspire with.

    2. Click Login.
  9. If there are references to other components from the ones you're approving, you're asked if you want to include them in the approval process. Do one of the following:

    • To approve referenced components along with the selected source components, select Yes.
    • To approved only the selected source components, select No.
  10. The components are approved.
    Results:
    You receive one notification for all approvals.
    In the Content pane's components list, you see:

    • One of the following approved icons next to the approved component:
      • If no signature is required: a green checkmark .
      • If a signature is required: an e-signature icon .
    • The state of the component is changed to one of the following:
      • If no signature is required: Approved displays if you hover over the green checkmark.
      • If a signature is required: Signed displays if you hover over the e-signature icon.
    • The approved component may be locked with a green system lock. An administrator can control if a system lock is placed on the component after a user approves it. By default, this optional feature is set to false, and a lock is not placed on a component after approval.

    Go to the Notifications module and check for any Issues.

    For example, referenced components might be skipped and not approved if they are:

    • Locked
    • In review
    • Tagged with ApprovalNotRequired
    • Already approved

    To see the name of the user who signed the approval and the date:

    1. Right-click the component and select Details...
    2. On the Component Details screen, select the History tab.
    3. You can see the e-signature details in the two columns: eSigned By, and eSigned Date.

      After you approve a component, if your electronic signature was required:
      • Your signature is attached to the component's history. Even if you or another user then Unapprove the component, it returns to the Draft state but the information about any previously attached e-signatures for approval remains part of the component's history. For more information read: View a component's history.
      • If you export a list of components, the exported CSV file includes all e-signatures.
      • If you approve multiple components at once, you only have to complete the e-signature form once, and it's applied to all selected components