My approach is to create an hourly cron event that loops through all the draft status posts and checks for the publish month – date and hour saved in post_meta and publishes if scheduled date is not in the future.
A publish date and time select meta box is added to the publishing div that updates via ajax when a time is chosen.
Update:
Added plugin and date picker css to git: https://github.com/c3mdigital/WP-Schedule
Changed cron function to use timezone configured in WordPress for publishing.
Update:
The date and time will be stored in post_meta as an array: month' => 'string', time => int The time integer will be a value that represents an hour of the day 1-24.
The options screen has 3 inputs.
- Times: entered as comma separated numbers representing the hour of the day to publish posts.
- Number of posts to publish at each time
- Dates: a comma separated array of dates
I added a jQuery UI Date picker to the post edit screen that is restricted to the dates chosen in the admin. The date and time are updated and saved using ajax.
Updated Plugin Code:
<?php
/*
Plugin Name: c3m wp-schedule
Plugin URI:
Description: Gives contributors a jQuery date picker to choose available date and times available to publish posts
Version: 0.1.2
Author: Chris Olbekson
Author URI: http://c3mdigital.com/
License: GPL v2
*/
register_activation_hook( __FILE__, 'c3m_activate_cron' );
add_action( 'post_submitbox_misc_actions', 'c3m_create_schedule_meta', 10 );
add_action( 'admin_print_footer_scripts', 'c3m_echo_js' );
add_action( 'admin_enqueue_scripts', 'c3m_enqueue_scripts' );
function c3m_activate_cron() {
wp_schedule_event( current_time( 'timestamp' ), 'hourly', 'c3m_check_posts' );
}
function c3m_check_posts() {
$args = array(
'post_status' => array( 'draft', 'pending' ),
'posts_per_page' => -1,
);
$timestamp = current_time( 'timestamp' );
$posts = get_posts( $args );
$month = (int) date('m', $timestamp );
$day = (int) date('d', $timestamp );
$hour = (int) date('G', $timestamp );
foreach ( $posts as $post ) {
$date = get_post_meta( $post->ID, '_schedule_date', true );
if ( !$date ) continue;
$sched_date = explode( "-", $date['date'] );
if ( (int) $sched_date[0] > $month ) continue;
if ( (int) $sched_date[1] > $day ) continue;
if ( (int) $sched_date[1] >= $day && (int)$date['time'] > $hour ) continue;
wp_publish_post( $post->ID );
}
}
function c3m_create_schedule_meta() {
global $post_ID;
$date = get_post_meta( $post_ID, '_schedule_date', TRUE );
$options = c3m_get_options ();
$times = $options[ 'c3m_hour_string' ];
$times_available = explode ( ",", $times );
$time_output = "Choose Time to publish<br/>";
$time_output .= "<select class="time-div" name="c3m_sched_time" id='" . $post_ID . "' >\n";
$time_output .= "\t<option value="-1">" . esc_html ( 'Select Publish Time' ) . "</option>\n";
foreach ( $times_available as $time ) {
$time_output .= "\t<option value="$time">" . esc_html ( $time ) . "</option>\n";
}
$time_output .= "</select>";
echo '<div id="schedule" class="misc-pub-section" style="border-top-style:solid; border-top-width:1px; border-top-color:#EEEEEE; border-bottom-width:1px;">';
if ( !$date ) {
$output="Choose Date to publish";
$output .= "<input class="sched-div datepicker" type="text" name="c3m_sched_date" id='".$post_ID."' />\n";
$output .= '<br /><br /><div id="sched_time_div">'.$time_output.'</div>';
echo $output;
echo '<p id="hidden-p"><a id="save-time" style="margin-left: 10px" class="button">Save</a></p>';
} else {
if ( $date['time'] > 12 ) $pm = 'pm'; else $pm = 'am';
echo '<p style="padding-left: 10px;">Scheduled to publish on: <strong>' . $date['date'] . '</strong><br />';
echo 'At approx: <strong>' . $date['time'].$pm. '</strong><br /></p>';
}
echo '</div>';
}
function c3m_enqueue_scripts() {
global $pagenow, $typenow;
if ( ( $pagenow == 'post.php' || $pagenow == 'post-new.php' ) && $typenow == 'post' ) {
wp_enqueue_script( 'jquery-ui-datepicker' );
wp_enqueue_style ( 'jquery-ui-lightness', plugins_url( 'ui-lightness/jquery-ui-1.8.20.custom.css', __FILE__ ) );
}
}
function c3m_echo_js() {
global $pagenow, $typenow;
if ( ( $pagenow=='post.php' || $pagenow=='post-new.php') && $typenow=='post') {
$options = c3m_get_options ();
$dates = $options[ 'c3m_date_string' ];
$find = "https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/";
$replace="-";
$dates = str_replace( $find, $replace, $dates );
$days = explode ( ",", $dates );
$year = date ( 'Y' );
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
jQuery("#publishing-action").hide();
jQuery(".misc-pub-section-last").hide();
jQuery("a#save-time").click(function() {
var postID = jQuery("#post_ID").val();
var pubDate = jQuery(".sched-div").val();
var theTime = jQuery(".time-div option:selected").val();
console.log( postID, pubDate, theTime );
jQuery.ajax({
type:'POST',
url: ajaxurl,
data: {"action": "save_pub_time", post_id: postID, sched: pubDate, time: theTime },
success: function(response) {
jQuery("#schedule").replaceWith(response);
}
});
return false;
});
var enabledDays = [ <?php foreach( $days as $day ) { ?>
"<?php echo $day.'-'.$year; ?>",
<?php } ?>];
function enableAllTheseDays(date) {
var m = date.getMonth(), d = date.getDate(), y = date.getFullYear();
for (i = 0; i < enabledDays.length; i++) {
if (jQuery.inArray((m + 1) + '-' + d + '-' + y, enabledDays) != -1) {
return [true, ''];
}
}
return [false, ''];
}
jQuery('.datepicker').datepicker({
dateFormat:'mm-dd-yy',
beforeShowDay:enableAllTheseDays
});
});
</script>
<?php }
}
add_action ( 'wp_ajax_save_pub_time', 'c3m_ajax_save' );
function c3m_ajax_save() {
$post_id = $_POST[ 'post_id' ];
$date = $_POST[ 'sched' ];
$time = $_POST[ 'time' ];
if ( $time > 12 ) $pm = 'pm'; else $pm = 'am';
update_post_meta ( $post_id, '_schedule_date', array ( 'date' => $date, 'time' => $time ) );
$output="<p style="padding-left: 10px;">Scheduled to publish on: <strong>".$date.'</strong><br />';
$output .= 'At approx: <strong>'.$time. $pm.'</strong></p><br />';
echo $output;
die(1);
}
/**
* @return array
* Array
* (
* [c3m_hour_string] => 11,03,05,07
* [c3m_allowed_string] => 4
* [c3m_date_string] => 05/10,05/11,05/12
* )
*
*/
function c3m_get_options() {
$c3m_options = get_option('c3m_options');
return $c3m_options;
}
add_action( 'admin_menu', 'c3m_create_menu' );
function c3m_create_menu() {
add_options_page( 'Manage Post Schedule', 'Manage Post Schedules', 'manage_options', 'post_schedules', 'c3m_schedule_options' );
}
function c3m_schedule_options() {
echo '<div class="wrap">';
echo '<h2>Manage Post Schedules</h2>';
echo 'Manages the custom post scheduling options';
echo '<form action="options.php" method="post">';
settings_fields( 'c3m_options' );
do_settings_sections( 'post_schedules' );
echo '<input name="Submit" type="submit" class="button-primary" value="Save Changes" />';
echo '</form></div>';
}
add_action( 'admin_init', 'c3m_plugin_init' );
function c3m_plugin_init() {
register_setting( 'c3m_options', 'c3m_options', 'c3m_validate' );
add_settings_section( 'plugin_main', 'Post Schedule Dates and Times', 'settings_array', 'post_schedules' );
add_settings_field( 'c3m_hour_string', 'Enter Post Publish Times (use 2 digit hours seperated by commas. ie 11,16,17 will publish at 11am, 4pm and 5pm):', 'c3m_hour_setting', 'post_schedules', 'plugin_main' );
add_settings_field( 'c3m_allowed_string', 'Enter how many posts can be published at each time: ', 'c3m_allowed_setting', 'post_schedules', 'plugin_main' );
add_settings_field( 'c3m_date_string', 'Enter Publish Dates (use month/day seperated by commas ie: 5/5,5/7 for May 5th and May 7th): ', 'c3m_date_setting', 'post_schedules', 'plugin_main' );
add_settings_field( 'c3m_editor', 'click to load an editor', 'c3m_editor_setting', 'post_schedules', 'plugin_main' );
}
function settings_array() {
echo '<p>Add post schedule date and time settings here</p>';
}
function c3m_hour_setting() {
$options = get_option( 'c3m_options' );
echo "<input id='c3m_hour_string' name="c3m_options[c3m_hour_string]" size="40" type="text" value="{$options["c3m_hour_string']}' />";
}
function c3m_allowed_setting() {
$options = get_option( 'c3m_options' );
echo "<input id='c3m_allowed_string' name="c3m_options[c3m_allowed_string]" size="40" type="text" value="{$options["c3m_allowed_string']}' />";
}
function c3m_date_setting() {
$options = get_option( 'c3m_options' );
echo "<input id='c3m_date_string' name="c3m_options[c3m_date_string]" size="40" type="text" value="{$options["c3m_date_string']}' />";
}
function c3m_validate( $input ) {
$options = get_option( 'c3m_options' );
$options['c3m_hour_string'] = trim( $input['c3m_hour_string'] );
$options[ 'c3m_allowed_string' ] = trim ( $input[ 'c3m_allowed_string' ] );
$options[ 'c3m_date_string' ] = trim ( $input[ 'c3m_date_string' ] );
return $options;
// Todo: Create a real validate function
}
@Todo: Create validation function for saving the options, Create a count option that stores how many posts are scheduled for each time to restrict those times once full, and clean up & document the code.