How to add custom page status to Automation rules?

[Archana Javgal]

Hello!

I want to create an automation rule with my custom page status but unfortunately only the pre-defined ones pop up in the drop down which are In draft, progress, ready for review and verified. This is because we have a use case where we need to seek approval from the managers before proceeding to deployment. The idea is to create a space rule as given below:

When page status changes to "Needs Review" send an email to a team of managers for approval. 

In this case, "Needs Review" is a custom status

FYI: We can't create another space only for this approval process because of the consistency of document requirement. If we use the standard page status then the email will be sent for every page which is not a part of approval process as it can be openly used by all the users.

Please advise.

Thanks
Archana

[Kristian Klima]

Hi @Archana Javgal and welcome to the Community.

You can create a custom space status in the Space's Settings.

This will then appear in your status options when creating an automation rule.

In my personal space, I created the Needs review status which then appears in the dropdown.

Does it answer your question or did I misunderstand the details of your use case?

[Russell Zera]

@Kristian Klima I don't know if this helps @Archana Javgal, but I'm having same question and this doesn't help me, unfortunately, as Confluence Content Statuses only allow a maximum of five(5) "Suggested" Statuses. So if we already have those five(5) statuses used for different content needs, and we want to create an automation to set a page status on a particular page that meets the defined criteria, if the status we want to use is not one of those five(5), even if Custom Statuses are allowed, Automation will not allow me to use it in my rule unless it is one of the five(5) suggested statuses. 

[Russell Zera]

For clarity, according to the documentation, custom statuses SHOULD surface ("Once the scope is saved, both Suggested and Custom statuses will surface as options."), but I have been trying to leverage this for quite some time and have not successfully gotten custom statuses (even custom statuses I have personally used on pages within that same space), so I think that element is potentially bugged currently (as the documentation clearly states it is INTENDED to allow custom statuses to populate in the rule). 

[Levente Szabo _Midori_]

@Russell Zera Are you open to using a dedicated solution instead of Automation for Confluence?

If yes, then Better Content Archiving and Analytics has a flexible and advanced page status system. It's more flexible than the built-in Confluence page status for managing and reporting on page status.

Better Content Archiving and Analytics for Confluence brings you options to:

1. Add/create your custom page statuses (20 instead of the 5 you can use built-in)
2. Automate the status updates with intuitive automation rules, instead of always updating statuses manually
3. Send notifications based on statuses to a variety of recipients
4. Display your pages with their status with a page status macro
5. Analyze and report on your page statuses and other page and space usage metrics with Confluence analytics (available for all tiers, including free)

[Russell Zera]

unfortunately, no. Adding a 3rd party/marketplace add-on isn't really an option for us at this time. Especially if the documentation is claiming that what we are looking for is an out-of-the-box capability that might just be bugged.

[Levente Szabo _Midori_]

Did you create those custom statuses that you are missing now in automation?
I assume yes, from your words "I used them personally." I just wanted to clarify if you meant that you created the custom status initially.

There must be some glitch or miscommunication on the documentation. As you know (I just tested it again to be sure that it has not changed), if you create a custom status, it is only available for you. Others can see the status when its applied to a page, but would not be able to select that status, unless they themselves create the same exact status (which is impossible to maintain.) So I'm guessing that even if there is a bug, this limitation could interfere with the automation rule you are trying to build.

[Levente Szabo _Midori_]

@Archana Javgal 

Last time I checked, built-in custom page statuses appear only for the user who created them. The built-in page statuses are not fully designed to manage complex workflows for teams. In our experience, those are just colorful flags when it comes to enterprise logic.

Better Content Archiving and Analytics is a go-to tool for advanced page statuses and for automation workflows built on them, like intelligently sent-out notifications.

I suggest you continue your research in 2 steps:

1. Check how you can leverage advanced and automatic page statuses with Better Content Archiving and Analytics:

2. Check how you can automate your notification emails with custom wording and logic based on your custom statuses:

In your use case, you can define a specific owner or supervisor who receives a reminder email and no one else.

She then can set the status to another "Approved" type status, which can also be custom!

Give it a try and reach out to us if you want to discuss your use case and find a dedicated solution instead of forcing features to fit it.