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Intro

Certification allows you to certify cards and DataSets so that users know which content has been reviewed and approved when viewing the content. Certified content is given a badge, depending on the type of certification. Two types of certification are available in Domo, described below:

• Company certification — This process is the most stringent and is for pieces of content that your entire organization should be aware of.
• Department certification — This process is for content that may not apply to the entire organization but has been certified by a specific department.

Company- and department-certified content is indicated using different badges. If you are not the owner of a piece of content but have permission to request certification, a certification request is sent to the content owner, who can then decide whether to start or deny the approval process, and which type of certification is needed. After the owner initiates the appropriate approval process, the certification request goes to each specified approver/group in the chosen approval process. Approvers have the responsibility to approve or reject certification requests. They can also send requests back in the approval chain if changes are required. If you have the required grant, you can also certify your own content.

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This article discusses the various parts of the certification process in the following topics:

• Required grants
• Set up a certification process
• Certification badges
• Certify your own content
• Request card certification
• Request DataSet certification
• The Certification Center
  • Manage certification requests
    • Manage requests to certify your own content
    • Manage certification requests as part of the approval chain
• Admin settings
• Certification processes
  • Add a process
  • Edit and delete a process
  • Process details
  • Approval chain
• Certified content
  • Expire if edited
• How to certify a card (video)

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Required Grants

These two grants are associated with certification:

• Request Certification — All default security roles except Social have this grant by default. If you want to restrict who can request content certification, you can create a custom role without this grant.
• Manage Certified Content — Allows admins to make changes to the Certified Content Admin Settings. To have access to these settings, a user must have an Admin default security role for the instance or a custom role with this grant enabled.

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Set Up a Certification Process

By default, there are no certification processes enabled in your Domo instance. An admin with permission can access the Certified Content Admin Settings and enable one of four default processes or configure one or more new processes for the organization. Admins can access the Certified Content Admin Settings from the navigation header by selecting More > Admin Settings. Under Features, select Certified Content. There are two pages in the Certified Content Admin Settings: Certified Cards and Certified DataSets. When an admin first accesses the Certified Content Admin Settings, there are four processes configured—the Company process and department processes for Human Resources, Marketing, and Sales. You can edit and enable any of these processes or delete any of the department processes. You cannot delete the Company process. Learn more about creating and editing Certification Processes later in this article.

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Certification Badges

If a card or DataSet has been submitted for certification, a badge displays with that content to indicate where in the process the content is. These badges are described below:

Badge	Description
	Indicates that certification has been requested, that the content is pending department certification, or that the content’s department certified status has expired.
	Indicates that the content is certified through a Department certification process.
	Indicates that the content is pending company certification or that the content’s company certification status has expired.
	Indicates that the content is certified through the Company certification process.

When you open a card’s Details view, if the card has a badge it displays by the card title. In the DataSets section of the Data Center, DataSets display with their badge, if applicable.

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Certify Your Own Content

If you have the Manage Certified Content grant, you are a Certified Content Admin and you can choose whether to certify your own content or send it through the approval chain. Learn how to add grants to your role. Follow these steps to certify your own content:

1. Go to the card or DataSet and select Card options (cards)/ More (DataSets) > Request certification.
   
   The Certify (content) modal displays.
   
2. Expand the Select a process menu and choose the process you want to use.
   
3. On the process details screen, select Certify.
   
   The modal provides a confirmation screen, where you confirm and certify the content in one step.
4. Select Confirm.
   

The content now carries a badge.

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Request Card Certification

If you have permission to request certification for a card, you can do so from the card Details view or the dashboard where the card is displayed by following these steps:

1. Select Card options > Request certification.
   
2. (Conditional) If you are not the card owner, a dialog displays to confirm that the request has been sent to the owner of the card. Owners can decide whether they want to submit the card for approval. In the dialog, you can select either OK or Cancel Request.
   

This is the end of the process if you do not own the card. You can keep track of all of your certification requests by visiting the Certification Center. If you are the card owner and you request certification for the card, the Certify Card modal displays. Learn more about this modal below.

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Request DataSet Certification

If you have permission to request certification for a DataSet, you can do so from the DataSet Details view in the Data Center by following these steps:

1. Select More > Request certification.
   
2. (Conditional) If you do not own the DataSet, a dialog displays to confirm that the request has been sent to the DataSet owner. Owners can decide whether they want to submit the DataSet for approval. In the dialog you can select either OK or Cancel Request.
   

This is the end of the process if you do not own the DataSet. You can keep track of all of your certification requests by visiting the Certification Center. If you are the DataSet owner and you request certification for the card, the Certify DataSet modal displays. Learn more about this modal below.

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The Certification Center

The Certification Center is where you manage all certification requests. You can view details of requests you have submitted and any waiting for your approval. These details include the approval chain and the actions taken by each approver or group. For requests awaiting your approval, you can choose to approve or deny them there. Access the Certification Center from the navigation header by selecting More > Certification Center .

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Manage Certification Requests

If a card or DataSet you own has been submitted for certification, you are the first to receive a request for that certification in your Certification Center. You receive a notification dot by your Certification Center menu option, and when you enter your Certification Center, you can view the request in the Waiting on you area. The main screen of the Certification Center displays a count of how many certification requests have been submitted by you and how many are waiting on your approval. Hover over the sidebar to display a list of the various areas within the Certification Center: Certification Center (returns you to the main screen), Submitted by you, Waiting on you, Settings (this option is only visible to admins or those with the required grants ). Learn about Settings below. The Submitted by you area allows you to view details of the active and historical requests you have submitted.

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Manage Requests to Certify Your Own Content

The Waiting on you area allows you to view and process requests that have been submitted to you for content you own. Follow the steps below:

1. In the Waiting on you area, select the item from the list in the Active tab.
   
2. (Conditional) If you want to approve the request, select Start. The Certify Card or Certify DataSet modal displays, depending on the content of the request. Move to the next step. If you want to refuse the request, select Deny. A dialog displays confirming that you are denying the request and giving you an option to explain why you denied the request. This information is visible to everyone who as permission to view the request.
   
3. If you selected Start (or are requesting certification for content that you own) and are now viewing the Certify Card or Certify DataSet modal, expand the Select a process menu. The available processes include the Company process and all the department processes that exist in your instance. You can learn more about processes in the Admin Settings section of this article. If you are a Certified Content Admin, you can certify your own content at this point. Learn more in the Certify Your Own Content section of this article.
   
4. Select the process you want to use to certify your content. A pane displays with details about the selected process, including the process description, instructions (if any), the content included in the request, and members of the approval chain. There is also a note under Granting Access that advises how many people (members of the approval chain) are gaining access to the content. If it is enabled in the Admin Settings, you can also add people/groups to the approval chain here. To learn how to do this, see Approval Chain.
   
5. Review the process details and select Submit.

The certification request is sent to the first approver in the approval chain.

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Manage Certification Requests as Part of the Approval Chain

If you are specified as an approver for any certification request, it is your responsibility to respond to any requests that come your way (unless you are a member of an approver group, in which case any member of the group may respond to certification requests). When a request is made, a notification is sent to you that you need to take action. The type of notification you receive is based on your notification settings. For more information, see Configuring Notification and Alert Settings. As part of the approval chain, you can take the following actions in the Certification Center:

• Approve the request, sending a notification to the next person/group in the chain (unless you are the only user in the approver chain, in which case the submitting user is notified of the approval).
• Ask a question about the request. The question is posted in the Buzz channel for the request, and any users with access can read or respond to it. For more information, see Posting to Buzz.
• Share access to the Buzz channel for the request with specified users and groups.
• Edit details of the request yourself.
• Request changes from the previous person in the chain (or the submitter if there is no one before you in the chain).
• Delegate a new approver for the request.
• Reject the request.

Follow these steps to manage requests as part of the approval chain:

1. In the Waiting on You area of the Certification Center, go to the Active tab and select the request you have been asked to approve. (You can use the search and Filter options to find the request.) Details for that request display on screen.
   
2. Read through the request details and do one of the following:
   • To approve the request, select Approve. If there are approvers after you in the chain, the next approver is notified about the approval, and must now take action on the request. Otherwise, the approval process is finished and the submitter is notified.
   • To ask a question about the request in Buzz, select More > Ask a question. This opens Buzz if it is not open already.
   • To share access to the Buzz channel for this request, select More > Share link. In the Share With field, select the users and/or groups you want to share access with, then select Share. These users and groups are then emailed the link to the Buzz channel.
   • To edit the request, select More > Edit request. Make any changes and select Save.
   • To request changes, select Send Back > Request Change. In the message field, explain the changes you want to be made to the request, then select Send. The previous person/group in the approval chain is notified about the requested changes. They can either make the changes and resubmit, or request that the previous user in the chain or submitter make the changes.
   • To delegate a new approver, select More > Delegate. Select the user you want to delegate to in the Delegate to field then enter a message explaining the reason for the delegation. Select Send.
   • To reject the request, select Send Back > Deny. In the message field, enter the reason you are rejecting the request. Select Deny. This stops the approval flow, and the submitter is notified that the request has been denied.
     

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Admin Settings

In the Certified Content Admin Settings, admins can do the following:

• View all content that has been certified or is in a certification requested, pending, or expired state
• Modify both company- and department-level card certification processes
• Add new department-level card certification processes (There is only one company-level certification process.)
• Determine whether certifications expire when content is edited
• Cancel certification requests

If you need to make changes to the fields and/or approvers for the certification request form, you can make them here. See Edit and Delete a Process. For more information about managing request templates, see Create a Request Template. In the admin settings, there are two pages (Certified Cards and Certified DataSets), each with the same basic structure: certification processes and certified content.

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Certification Processes

The certification processes section of the Certified Cards and Certified DataSets pages is divided into Company certified and Departments processes. The Company certified only contains one process, and there can only be one Company certification process. If a process is disabled, you must select and edit it to enable it. See Edit and Delete Processes.

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Add a Process

There is only one Company process in the instance. You can edit this process, but you can’t delete it, and you can’t add another. To add a department process, select Add in the Departments section.

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Edit and Delete a Process

Hover over the Company process to display the Edit option and hover over any of the department processes to display the Edit and Delete options. You can edit the Company process, but you can’t delete it.

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Process Details

When you choose to edit either the Company or a department process, the process Details display. The areas of the process Details are described below:

• (Conditional) Name — You can add/edit the name of department processes; you cannot change the name of the Company process.
• Owner — Lists the process owner. Typically this is the organization.
• Description — Describes when this process should be used.
• Request details — Displays the type of content to be certified and how it is entered in a certification request.
• Additional information — You can require additional information to be included in requests by adding fields to this area, and choosing a response type. Use the handles to reorder items or select Delete to remove an item.
• Instructions — Provides instructions for using the process.
• Approval Chain — Lists the individuals or groups in the approval chain. Learn more about the approval chain below.
• Enabled/Disabled — The process must be enabled for it to display as an option when a person is submitting a certification request.
• Save — Select Save to keep your changes and close the process Details.
• Cancel — Select Cancel to discard your changes and close the process Details.
• Preview — Select Preview to display a preview of the process Details that someone will see when submitting a certification request through this process.
• (Conditional) Delete — For department processes, select Delete to delete the process. A dialog displays to confirm deletion of the certification process. Select Delete, Cancel, or Disable.
  

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Approval Chain

The approval chain can have as many steps as you want. The content to be certified is sent to one person/group in the chain at a time. If content is sent to a group, only one member of the group needs to approve the content before it continues up the chain. To add a person or group to the approval chain from the process Details, select + Add Approver Step. Then search for and select a person or group to add to the approval chain, or enter text and select Set ” text ” as a placeholder description. You can also turn on/off the Locked Chain feature. A locked chain means that a person submitting a certification request cannot add approvers to the chain when requesting through this process. If the chain is not locked, the person submitting the request can add approvers to the approval chain for this certification process. Use the handles by the steps of the approval chain to drag them into a different order. You can select Edit or Delete for each step.

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Certified Content

On the Certified Cards and Certified DataSets pages after the processes, a list displays of all the cards or DataSets in your instance that have been certified or submitted for certification, are pending certification, or have an expired certification. You can use the search bar to scan the list for the content you are looking for and/or filter the list by Pending, Expired, Certified, or Requested. You can also manage the Expire if edited function, which is described below. In the list, certified content displays with the appropriate badge, and content that is awaiting certification, pending certification, or with expired certification displays with the pending version of the appropriate badge. To help you see which is which more quickly, expired content displays in red, certified content displays in blue, and pending content displays in gray. All list entries display the name of the content owner, the date the content was last updated, the certification or expiration date (or a Pending stamp if pending), and the lifetime number of views for the content. Certified and pending content also have a More menu:

• More (Certified) — The More menu for certified content includes options to Remove Certification and View Details.
  
  Selecting Remove Certification displays a dialog to confirm certification removal. You can select Remove or Cancel. Selecting View Details displays a view of the certified content that includes an image of the object and details the certification process used, any instructions, and the steps of the approval chain. You can select Details for the Approval Chain item to view more information about each step in the approval chain.
  
  You can also check the box labeled Show events to view a list of the system messages about the certification process such as who submitted the request and who approved or denied it.
  
• More (Pending) — The More menu for pending content includes options to Cancel Certification Request and View Details.
  
  Selecting Cancel Certification Request displays a dialog to confirm cancelation. You can select O K (to cancel the certification request) or Cancel (to close the dialog without canceling the certification request). Selecting View Details displays the same screen as for certified content.

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How to Certify a Card (video)