Early Access viewing for articles

Description:

The Early Access workflow makes it possible for people with a direct link to an article to view it before it becomes fully public on a website. Articles in early access will not be listed anywhere, neither on articles listings on pages nor on sitemap while in early access mode.

This feature is particularly useful for sharing drafts with collaborators, reviewers, or stakeholders who need to provide feedback before the content goes live. 

One important aspect to keep in mind when enabling this feature, is that the articles in early access will be accessible only to those who have the direct link. No special passwords or permissions are required to view these articles: anyone with the link can access them.

For sharing early access articles, the "View on Website" button available in the article editor can be used. This button generates a direct links to the article, on the sites where it is being or will be published, which can then be shared with the intended audiences for review or feedback.

How to configure for early access of an article

To configure the Early Access functionality:

1. Expand the Articles module
2. Click on Articles settings
3. Go to the Workflow tab
4. Under the Early access workflow section
5. To use early access, set a checkmark for the field "Use early access workflow"
   1. This will allow you to access the functionality for sharing articles via early access
   2. This is found on the Publish tab of the article
   3. Set a checkmark "Enable early access" to enable functionality for the article
   4. Add a date in the field "early access since", if you want to set a date when available for early access
6. If you want to force use of 'Enable early access' field :
   1. This means that early access will be turned on for every article automatically
   2. Set a checkmark in the field "Make 'Enable early access' field required"
   3. Now the field will be automatically checked and disabled so it cannot be removed
7. If you want to force use of 'early access since' field
   1. Set a checkmark in the field "Make 'early access since' field required"
   2. A red asterisk is added to the field to let users know they need to add this date
8. Click on the SAVE button to keep your changes.

How to configure an article for early access (on future published articles)

1. Expand the Articles module
2. Click on "Manage articles"
3. From the list of articles find the published future dated article to view and edit it
4. Go to the Publish tab
5. Locate the website where the article will be published
6. Expand the website and you will see the Enable early access field
7. Set a checkmark in the box for "Enable early access"
8. Click on Publish button
9. The button "View on Website", in the upper right, should now be enabled. Click on it.
10. The window "View article online" opens
11. There will be a block for each website (on this entity) where this article is available
12. Additionally, if there are multiple pages where the article is published, an entry will be displayed for each page where the article is published.
13. Find the website and page where you want to view the article:
    1. The path to the detail page(s) will be displayed, to view on that page
    2. If translations are available, there will be a button for choosing the language
    3. There will be an "Open" button to view the episode on the website page
    4. The link is displayed, and a copy icon to copy the path and send it

Using Early Access date field

1. Open the article for editing
2. Go to the Publish tab
3. Click on the website where the article is published, to expand open the inner fields
4. In the field "Early access since" add a date to make the article available
5. Click on Publish
6. Users of the link should now not be able to access the article before the set date