Sitecore 8 and 8.1: What you should know about workflow and content entry if you’re a Sitecore admin
By: Solution Architect Grant Bartlett
When working with content, it is very important to be careful if you are logged in as a Sitecore administrator.
Locks don’t apply to you
When a content author edits a piece of content, Sitecore applies a lock that prevents other content users from editing that content. As an administrator, you are not impeded by a lock meaning if a lock is present you can still edit the content of the item as if it were not.
Creating a new item does not create a lock to you
Additionally, if you create a new item, the item isn’t locked to you. This opens the possibility of another content author being able to edit an item you created — assuming they have write access to the item of course.
You can edit content in the final workflow state
The final state of the workflow is not meant to be a state where content can be edited. When a content editor attempts to edit an item in the final state of a workflow, Sitecore creates a new version of the item and moves that item to the initial state of the workflow. None of that happens if you are logged in as an administrator. As an administrator, you can edit the content directly in the final state. Doing so means that these content changes are eligible to be published immediately, even if that isn’t the intent.
As a rule of thumb, Sitecore administrator accounts should be not used for content entry because of these nuances.
