Table of Contents

Approval workflows & inbox (DNN)

An approval workflow is a User Task in the form's BPMN diagram: when a submission reaches it, a task is created for the assigned users/roles — and shows up in their My Inbox. This page follows a real task on the demo site's Transaction form.

Opening a task in My Inbox on DNN: the queue, then the task detail — Details / History / Workflow / Form Responses tabs and the Approve · Reject · Return · Forward action bar

The task detail

Opening a task shows everything the approver needs:

Tab Content
Details The task itself — who assigned it, due date, priority, comments.
History The audit trail: every prior action on this record with actor + timestamp.
Workflow Where this record sits in the diagram right now.
Form Responses The submitted answers (an approver can read the record they're deciding on — enforced server-side, whether or not they hold general submission rights).

The actions

  • Approve — the workflow continues along the approved path (in the ERP demo, that's what fires the Database node and issues the invoice).
  • Reject — the record takes the rejection branch (or ends).
  • Return — send it back to the submitter for fixes.
  • Forward — hand the task to another user (tracked in History).
  • Comment / Print / Export — annotate without deciding, print the A4 record, export it.

Assignment & security

Task assignees are resolved server-side from the workflow definition (users or DNN roles) — membership comes from the workflow tables, never from the request. Multi-approver setups (anyone-of-role claims the task) and multi-stage chains (manager → finance) are just more User Tasks and gateways in the diagram. Ad-hoc, workflow-less review also exists: select submissions in the grid and Send to Inbox assigns them to a teammate as review tasks.