Expire Posts

• huwrowlands

• January 18, 2022 at 5:24 pm

I am having issues with the functionality of my code. The custom post should expire after a certain number of days. At the moment it’s set to 3 days just so I can test it.
They are expiring even though before the expiry date and I can’t figure out why?!

// Setup Cron Job Function to expire posts and send out emails.
function listing_expiry_date() {

	// Get the current date
	date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
	$today = date('m/d/Y');
							
	// Custom Post Type for listings, grab published posts
	$args = array(
		'post_type'      => array( 'post_type_listings' ),
		'post_status'    => array( 'Publish' ),
		'posts_per_page' => -1,
	);
	
	// The Query
	$query = new WP_Query( $args );
	
	// The Loop
	if ( $query->have_posts() ) :
		while ( $query->have_posts() ) :
			$query->the_post();
			
			// Get the listing ID
			$post_id = get_the_ID();
				
	// Get listing post published date (not pending date)	 
	//$published_date = get_the_date( 'm/d/Y', get_the_ID() );
	$published_date = date('m/d/Y');
													
        $expiry_date  = date( 'm/d/Y', strtotime( '+3 days', strtotime($published_date) ) );		
			
        // If todays date is equal to or greater than the expiry date...
        if ( ($today == $expiry_date) || ($today > $expiry_date) ) :

	// change post status to 'expired'
	$postdata = array(
	'ID'          => $post_id,
	'post_status' => 'expired',

        );

	// Update post data
	wp_update_post($postdata);
																				
	endif;							
			
	endwhile; //endwhile The Loop
endif; //endif The Loop			
	
}

• John Huebner

• January 20, 2022 at 11:18 am

I do not completely understand your code.

But this is setting the publish date to the current date

$published_date = date('m/d/Y');

also, because you are using ‘m/d/y’ which could give false results.

You also need to include the statement global $post in your function if you are going to use $query->the_post();

function listing_expiry_date() {
  global $post; // important
  
  // your query and loop
  
  // date calc
  $published_date = get_the_date('Y-m-d');
  $expire = date('Y-m-d', strtotime($published_date.' +3 days'));
  $today = date('Y-m-d');
  if ($today >= $expire) {
    // expire post
  }
}

• jarvis

• January 20, 2022 at 12:13 pm

Could you not condense the query down to something like:

function listing_expiry_date() {	

	$args = array(
		'post_type' => array('post_type_listings'),
		'posts_per_page' => -1,
		'post_status' => 'publish',
		'orderby' => 'post_date',
		'order' => 'DESC',

		'date_query' => array(
			array(
				#'after'     => 'January 1st, 2013',
				'before'    => array(
					'year'  => date("Y"),
					'month' => date('m'),
					'day'   => date('d'),
				),
				'inclusive' => true,
			),
		),
  
		
	);
	$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
	if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
		while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {

			$the_query->the_post();

			# change the post status
			$postdata = array(
				'ID' => $post->ID,
				'post_status' => 'expired'
			);	
			wp_update_post($postdata);								

		}
	wp_reset_postdata();
	}
}

Code untested!

• huwrowlands

• January 21, 2022 at 7:15 am

None of these worked sadly.. I don’t understand the issue with my code. The posts aren’t changing to Expired when they should do.

// Setup and Run Cron Job
if (!wp_next_scheduled( 'hrl_expire_listings' )) {
	wp_schedule_event( time(), 'daily', 'hrl_expire_listings' );
}
add_action( 'hrl_expire_listings', 'listing_expiry_date' );

// Setup Cron Job Function to expire posts and send out emails.
function listing_expiry_date() {
	
	global $post;
	
	// Custom Post Type for listings, grab published posts
	$args = array(
		'post_type'      => array( 'post_type_listings' ),
		'post_status'    => array( 'Publish' ),
		'posts_per_page' => -1,
	);
	
	// The Query
	$query = new WP_Query( $args );
	
	// The Loop
	if ( $query->have_posts() ) :
		while ( $query->have_posts() ) :
			$query->the_post();
			
			// Get listing author details
			$author_display_name = get_the_author_meta( 'display_name' );	
			$author_email        = get_the_author_meta( 'user_email' );

			// Get admin/site details
			$admin_email     = get_option('admin_email');
			$admin_sitename  = get_option('blogname');	
						
			// Get the current date
			date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
			$today = date('Y-m-d');	
				
			// Get listing post published date (not pending date)
			$published_date = get_the_date( 'Y-m-d' );	
			
			$expiry_date = date('Y-m-d', strtotime($published_date.' +5 days'));
			
			// If todays date is equal to or greater than the expiry date...
			if ( $today >= $expiry_date ) :
			
				// change post status to 'expired'
				$postdata = array(
					'ID'          => $post->ID,
					'post_status' => 'expired',
				);			
			
			endif;								

		endwhile; //endwhile The Loop
		wp_reset_postdata();
	endif; //endif The Loop		
		
} //end function listing_expiry_date()

• huwrowlands

• January 21, 2022 at 8:36 am

I’ve even hard coded the expiry date and it’s still not working… weird.

$expiry_date = '2022-01-21';