SharePoint · Government and public sector

A SharePoint website CMS where staff publish with manager approval

A SharePoint Server 2016 content management system that lets non-technical staff of a public authority update the public website themselves, with every page approved by a manager before it goes live.

Client: A government authority with a high-traffic public website
Industry: Government and public sector
Platform: SharePoint
Started from: Approval Workflow product

01The challenge

Every change to the public website, from a notice to a slider or a document, went through developers. Urgent public updates waited in a queue, and the authority wanted its own teams to publish quickly without losing control of what went live.

02The solution

We built a content management system on SharePoint Server 2016 with a separate authoring site for staff and a publishing site for the public. Staff sign in with their organisation account. Creators build pages from templates, widgets and menus with a rich text editor, and a manager approves or rejects each page with a reason before it is published. Super admins manage users and roles.

How a page goes live

Create the menu and widgetsMenus and reusable widgets are created first, so pages can link to them.
Create the pageThe creator picks a content type, links a menu, chooses a full page, left panel or right panel layout and writes the content.
Send for approvalThe creator saves a draft or sends the page to the assigned manager.
Preview and decideThe approver previews the page and approves it or rejects it with a reason.
PublishAn approved page and its menu appear on the public site. A rejected page returns to the creator with the reason.

Screens from the system

Sample screens redrawn with sample data. They show the real stages of the workflow.

Screen 1 of 7Built for this client

Pages dashboard

Pages by approval status, with search, sort and pagination.

What the system covers

Authoring and publishing sitesStaff work on one site and the public sees another.
Three rolesCreator, approver and super admin, with sign-in through the organisation directory.
Page templatesFull page, left panel and right panel layouts.
Content typesContent, image, video, audio and document galleries, and content with documents.
Menus and widgetsMain, sub, footer, quick link and top menus, plus image, video, custom and pop up widgets.
Home page managementSlider, quick links, news feeds and widget rows.
FormsA career form and a feedback form that save entries and can email the right team.
Site settingsLogo, footer, header icons, quick links and social sharing.