DTP users accept STEP Workflow tasks in InDesign from the STEP Tasks panel. This panel is also where DTP users return these tasks—in the form of actual pages—back to STEP after completing work on the page.
Note: This topic describes the functionality of the STEP Tasks panel in the context of how to use it with a Flatplanner workflow. For a detailed explanation of all menu items on the panel, refer to the STEP Tasks topic in the Publisher (Adobe InDesign Integration) documentation
When DTP users click Accept Task from the STEP Tasks panel, an Accept Task dialog displays.
Enabling the Accept Task Action in the STEP Tasks Panel
To enable the Accept Task action in the STEP Tasks panel in InDesign, at least one Component column using the DTPTaskInfoProvider component must be added to the View for the DTP workflow state. This is configured as follows:
- In System Setup, navigate to the desired Flatplanner workflow, then right-click and select Edit STEP Workflow. The STEP Workflow Designer displays.
- In the STEP Workflow Designer, navigate to Edit > Edit Workbench Views and Mappings. The View Editor displays.
- If no views or mappings are already present, create them according to the steps outlined in the Views and Mappings for Workflows section of the STEP Workflows documentation
- Right-click the View for the DTP workflow state, then select Add Column > Component.
- Select DTPTaskInfoProvider from the Component dropdown list, then insert the desired text (which you would like the DTP operator to view) in the Title field. The following screenshot shows the standard configuration for the required DTPTaskInfoProvider component column.
Adding Additional Fields to the Accept Task Dialog
To add additional fields to the Accept Task dialog in InDesign, additional columns using the DTPTaskInfoProvider component may be added to the View in conjunction with workflow Variables.
The following example shows the column configuration for a Comments field. It uses the DTPTaskInfoProvider component in conjunction with a workflow variable called COMMENT:
The Comments field appears in the Accept Task dialog in InDesign:
This same Comments field can also be viewed in the workbench and populated with content before DTP users pick up the task in InDesign. This is accomplished by adding a Component column to the View of another workflow state that is viewable in the workbench. This should be a state that the Planned Page passes through before it is routed to InDesign.
In this example, the component is WorkflowVariable and the variable is COMMENT (the same variable used to generate the Comments field in the Accept Task dialog). The following screenshot shows this configuration for a sample View called 'Workbench':
This is how this column looks in the workbench:
Fields in the Task Completed Dialog
Any columns added to the Accept Task dialog in InDesign using the DTPTaskInfoProvider component also appear in the Task Completed dialog (also accessed from the STEP Tasks panel in InDesign). The Task Completed dialog displays when DTP users have completed working with the page in InDesign and return it to STEP.
The following screenshot shows how the Comments 'column' looks in the Task Completed dialog. DTP users may overwrite the incoming comments, which will display in the workbench when the page is returned to STEP:
