There seems to be much confusion out in the
SharePoint world around the topics of Check In/Out, Content Approval,
Version History and Draft Item Security. My goal is to explain and
clarify how all these function together.
REQUIRE CHECK OUT, CHECK OUT, CHECK IN
It
all starts with the creation of a new document be it created via the
New menu or uploaded. When a user creates or uploads the new document,
if "Require Check Out" is enabled, SharePoint will check out the
document for the user automatically. Nobody, not even Approvers, can
see the document until it is checked in.
Approvers can NEVER see content that is NOT checked in!
This
is the function of check out and check in. It is a way for a user to
work on a document in private until such time they are ready to share
the document with others. When they then check it in, it moves to the
next level of approval. If a situation unfolds where the user leaves
the company and has a document still checked out, an Administrator can
either do a "Discard Check Out" or "Take Ownership" can be done followed
by a Check In.
This gets tricky in the case of a newly uploaded
document. Because Approvers cannot see the document, the user doing
the upload needs to be aware of this because they have to do the Check
In to allow Approvers to see the document. It's the same as the first
iteration of a New document. Nobody except the author knows that the
document actually exists... at least not until Check In.
In
cases where users do mass uploads, having the "Force Check Out" option
selected on the document library, can cause major problems as the
uploading user would have to approve each document individually. That
can be a very time consuming process. I always recommend that in such
cases, the Administrator temporarily disable the "Force Check Out"
option to allow the library content to be populated. With Content
Approval turned on, this temporary change, would not cause major issues.
CONTENT APPROVAL
Upon
check in, if "Content Approval" is turned on, NOW Approvers as well as
the Author can see the document. Normal users cannot see the document
until it is approved.
If Content Approval is not
turned on, checking in the document, would make it visible to everyone.
With Content Approval turned on, an approver would need to review the
document and then approve it in order to make it visible to everyone.
DRAFT ITEM SECURITY
When
the Draft Item Security option is enabled, it usually deals with a
scenario where you may have a collaborative group working on a
document. This usually ties in with a Version History setting that has
both Major (1.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc.) and Minor (1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc.)
versions. In such a case, there may be a group of people that have
Member/Contributor rights that allows them to change document. There
are some users who are Approvers and setting this setting determines who
of these users can see items AFTER they are checked in. Remember that
only the active author can see items that are checked out.
This option is only available when the Version History setting is set to use Minor versions.
VERSION HISTORY
Lastly
there is Version History. Version history works independently from the
above items with the exception of Draft Item Security which is only
available as an option when Version History is set to Minor versions.
When set to Major versions, each update to the document results in a new version e.g. 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc.
When
set to Minor versions, each update results in a new minor version e.g.
1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc. When the document is then Approved, a new major
version is created. As an example, the document is worked on and
checked in by Bob, resulting in version 1.1. Now Sue edits the document
and upon check in, it results in version 1.2. This continues until
they are ready for the document to be approved. At this point, they
choose to Publish a Major version. The document approvers are notified
of the submission and they review it. Once they're happy with it and
approve the document, SharePoint publishes the document as version 2.0.
And that is how these items work together in the SharePoint environment. I hope this helps to shed some light on this subject.
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