Understanding review templates

Technical overview of review templates

Review templates are important for using the functionality provided by the Review, Commenting, and Approval building block. Review templates provide a mechanism to centralize, structure, and repeat reviews. It is critical that members of the implementation team understand how to create and manage review templates. It is recommended that a person that understands the regulatory or business process, such as a business analyst, be involved in defining the review rules and parameters.

Review templates provide the notion of predefined reviews that help to ensure compliance to business rules and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Review templates define the rules and parameters, which mirror regulations and rules in a review and approval workflow.

Review templates, once created, can be modified to support changes in compliance standards or an organization's standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Technical overview of review templates

A review template is an XML file. The review template defines the parameters for how the review executes. It also defines the number and type of stages in the review, as well as the parameters for each stage. The XML structure of a review template is defined by an XML Schema Definition file. (See Review template schema in Review, Commenting, and Approval Building Block 9.5 Technical Guide .)

Review templates can be created concurrently on the same LiveCycle server that runs the reviews. Review templates, when saved, can be made available immediately to review initiators. You can control the availability of the review template by permitting users to see review templates that are set as active. A review template can be set as active using a parameter in the review template.

Since review templates encapsulate the rules for a review and approval process, when invoked, it is called a review instance . A unique review context identifier identifies each review instance. Once a review is initiated, the review continues until all stages complete or expire.