Content types and Workflow

The different content types all permit users to do do one thing: put information on the web site. Blogs, pages, and stories can be used to do very similar -- or even identical things. On this site, I created the assignment content type so that users would have a content type with an intuitive name.

From a the perspective of a designer trying to create a clean, intuitive UI for the user, limiting the number of content types available can reduce the complexity of the site -- and, hopefully, eliminate any confusion experienced by the end user.

Workflow settings are set for each individual content type. You can see the list of content types enabled at http://yoursite.com/?q=admin/node/configure/types (or, administer -> content -> configure -> content types).


The workflow settings are useful in establishing a clean organizational structure. If you look at the screenshot of the assignment settings, you will see that I set the Default Options to Published, Promoted to front page, and Sticky at top of lists.

Whenever an instructor posts an assignment, it will automatically be promoted to the front page, and it will be at the top of the list. So, if the instructor posts an assignment into the Week 1 term, the assignment post will be at the top of both the front page and the list of posts in Week 1. When students post their blog responses into Week 1, they will all be listed under the assignment. This way, an instructor will never need to spend time browsing through blog posts attempting to find the assignment to which students are responding.