Approving user uploads

Learn how to review and approve uploads before they are visible in Dash

Charlie Pinker avatar
Written by Charlie Pinker
Updated over a week ago

πŸ’β€β™€οΈ Available on our Dashing and Value-Based plans, or as a bolt-on

Dash supports a two-way upload workflow whereby admins can require designated users' uploads to be approved before being made available to other Dash users.Β 

This is useful as it can allow external contributors (e.g. photographers) to upload straight into Dash, while still giving admins control over the final assets that are made available to the rest of your users.

  • You can enable upload with approval on a per-user basis (so all uploads by that user will either require approval, or none will)

  • Approvers and uploaders can add comments to the assets, to discuss required improvements and changes

  • Approvers and uploaders can submit new versions of an asset.

πŸ’‘ Looking for a way for people to upload to your Dash without needing a login? Check out our guest upload feature!

Adding a non-admin approver

By default, all admins are approvers and will be notified of any uploads submitted by any users who's uploads require approving.

You can add additional non-admin approvers. To do this:

  1. Navigate to the user's settings page in Admin > Users & groups > Users

  2. Open the desired user and enable the "Can approve other people's uploads" toggle

How to require approval for a user's uploads

  1. As an Admin, go to Admin > Users & Groups > Users

  2. Select the user you want to require approval for

  3. Check the box "Uploads must be approved"

The user must be in at least one Contributor permission group.

Approving uploaded assets

When new assets have been uploaded that require approval, all Admins will see an alert on the Home page and receive an email notification.

Pressing "View uploads" will show you all submitted assets and allow you to:

  • View each asset and update its metadata

  • Use your normal filters to filter down the asset view

  • Selectively approve or reject (delete) submitted assets

  • Add comments to assets that the uploader can see

Adding comments

Admins can use the comments feature to provide feedback to uploaders, for example to request specific changes are made before approving, or to give guidance to help the uploader with future image selections.

Any admin, or the uploader themselves, can add, edit and delete comments to uploaded assets at any time, using the comments panel in the metadata sidebar:


How approvals works from the uploader's perspective

Submitting an asset for approval

Whenever a user uploads an asset, and that user has the "uploads must be approved" option enabled, they will see the same upload screen and be able to update asset fields as normal, but they will now see a "Send for approval" button instead of the usual "Done" button.

Viewing previously submitted assets

Users can view submitted assets that haven't yet been approved by an admin by clicking Home and then clicking the "View" button in the recently added section.

Uploading a new version

Having received feedback on an asset from an approver, the uploader can choose to submit a new version of the asset. To do this, open the asset in question from within the upload screen, either:

  • Drag and drop the new version onto the browser window

    or

  • Click "Upload new version" at the bottom of the comments panel

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I unapprove assets I have just approved?

It is not possible to unapprove assets. You can use the search and filters to find the assets you've approved (e.g. you could filter by upload date/uploaded by) and delete them, then ask the user to resubmit.

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