Content Update Scheduler

Description

WordPress lacks the ability to schedule content updates. Keeping your posts and pages up to date manually can often be a waste of valuable time, especially when you know you’ll need to update the same page again soon.

Use Cases

• Promotions: Automatically publish versions of your pages that contain temporary promotions and schedule content updates that remove these promotions once they expire.
• Events: Schedule content updates for pages that list events. Automatically publish an updated version of the page after an event ends.
• SEO: Schedule series of content updates to keep your pages and publishing dates current and satisfy the freshness algorithm.

Key Features

• Updates page content and publishing date
• Compatible with any post type
• Compatible with Elementor and Oxygen Builder
• Nested content updates (multiple updates of the same page scheduled in a row)
• Lightweight code

Credits

Developed by Infinitnet and based on the abandoned tao-schedule-update plugin. Major contributions by Immediate Media.

Github: https://github.com/infinitnet/content-update-scheduler/

Installation

1. Upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/content-update-scheduler directory, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress
3. Each page and post now has a ‘Scheduled Content Update’ link where you can schedule the content updates. Click on it.
4. Select the date and time in the new ‘Scheduled Content Update’ meta box on ‘Page’ level and then click ‘Publish’ to schedule it.

FAQ

How do I schedule a content update?

Each page and post has a ‘Scheduled Content Update’ link in the overview, which allows you to schedule content updates. Click on it. Then select the date and time in the new ‘Scheduled Content Update’ meta box on ‘Page’ level and then click ‘Publish’ to schedule it.

Does this work with page builders?

Yes, it has been tested with Elementor and Oxygen Builder. It may also work with other page builders.

How can I exclude post types from Content Update Scheduler?

You can use below filter to exclude post types:

add_filter('content_update_scheduler_excluded_post_types', function($excluded_post_types) {
    // Replace EXCLUDE_THIS with the name of the post type you want to exclude
    $excluded_post_types[] = 'EXCLUDE_THIS';
    return array_unique($excluded_post_types);
    });

Reviews

Plugin has been updated and works perfectly

kmg27hotmailcom November 10, 2024 1 reply

I was a big fan of the Tao Schedule Update plugin and used it for years to schedule multiple changes to the same already-published page on a website I manage. For example, a livestream feed goes up on a page on the site at 9 a.m., comes down at 10 a.m., and a different livestream embed goes up at 11 a.m. When the Tao plugin broke, I searched and searched for a replacement and couldn’t find any that would do multiple, successive changes to the same page. Some would only do one change, one stripped out my <iframe> code when it published, one published immediately even though I had scheduled the change, one forced a whole publishing approval process that I didn’t need. If you miss the Tao plugin, then Content Update Scheduler is what you are searching for. It’s lightweight, simple, easy to use, and works exactly as you would expect. Enjoy!

Author Unresponsive

nemi5150 October 11, 2020

The plugin works for what it does, but I submitted a bug months ago that has been ignored, so that does not inspire confidence in the author. Beware that the plugin may be abandoned.

Simple and functional!

Lu Is August 26, 2020

A simple and very functional solution. Works like charm with DIVI and Avada theme.

Also not working with Elementor

veritatissplendor July 9, 2020

This works great for default Gutenberg pages. However, if I use the Scheduler link from the overview page, go into the page through the Scheduler link and then click “Edit with Elementor”, it loses ALL of the Elementor blocks and puts all components inside a single WYSIYG.

Exactly what I was looking for, no more no less!

Lukasz May 15, 2020

I left my original review with the original author of this plugin which has been abandoned: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/exactly-what-i-was-looking-for-no-more-no-less/ Thank you to current DEV @infinitnet for picking this up! This is something that should be in CORE!

Not Working with ELementor

sergiolopez94 May 9, 2020

I have to say that the plugin does what it says it does except for having a good integration with Elementor. Updates on Elementor generated pages are missing all kinds of formatting and it even collides all the content into one section.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

2.3.4

• feat: Add per-post option to preserve original publication date
• refactor: Enhance custom post type support with opt-out filter mechanism

2.3.3

• fix: Properly handle timezone when saving publication date
• refactor: Improve copy_meta_and_terms method to handle serialized and JSON data

2.3.2

• fix: Implement locking and transaction-like mechanism in publish_post
• fix: Use WordPress timezone for scheduling and publishing

2.3.1

• WordPress 6.6.1 fix/workaround: Implemented custom cron job to check and publish overdue scheduled posts

2.3

• Refactored datepicker: fixed bugs, allow time selection by minute
• Improved WooCommerce compatibility
• Don’t show “Republication Date” for original posts but only for republication drafts

2.2

• Improved fix for 404 issue
• Date picker timezone is now always the site’s timezone

2.1

• Fixed 404 error for republished posts: Removed unused code, added check for scheduled publish date, and added deactivation hook to remove custom post meta.
• Adjusted the datepicker to start the week on Sunday and added an onSelect event handler to call the checkTime function.
• Improved the date parsing logic and scheduling of content updates in the content-update-scheduler.php file.

2.0

• Fixed bug with date selection

1.9

• Ensure correct copying and maintenance of WooCommerce stock status during republication process and when saving the republication draft
• Update WooCommerce stock status and quantity from the original product before updating during republication

1.8

• Various bug fixes

1.7

• Fixed fatal error when class definition of metadata is missing and skip copying over metadata entries that fail to unserialize

1.6

• Updated functions to handle post ID references correctly and ensure “Republication Date” column appears for all post types
• Corrected nonce verification, function call, and meta data deletion for scheduled date handling

1.5

• Updated meta field references during republication to handle original post ID correctly

1.4

• Copy all meta fields dynamically for maximum compatibility with custom fields, WooCommerce products, etc.

1.3

• Elementor compatibility: Updated handling of Elementor CSS and added meta data copying

1.2

• Fixed the incorrect usage of action and filter hooks
• Moved CSS output to admin_head action to avoid ‘header already sent’ error
• Ensured all meta fields are correctly copied when creating the republication draft for WooCommerce variable products

1.1

• Pull request #4 from Immediate Media merged (Github)
• Use local WordPress time zone instead of UTC+1
• Retain original post author
• Deduplication of some pieces of code
• Deprecated functions and practices reduced
• Replaced the date_i18n() function with the newer wp_date() function
• Simplified the checkTime function in js/publish-datepicker.js
• Wrapped wp_get_current_user() call in a conditional to check if the user is logged in

1.0

• First version.