Allow Contributor Role To Suggest Scheduled Post Date

Did you ever, by chance, find a solution to this? I’m needing similar functionality…

In the core, meta-boxes.php, this is the code which controls it:

if ( $can_publish ) : // Contributors don't get to choose the date of publish ?>
<div class="misc-pub-section curtime misc-pub-section-last">
	<span id="timestamp">
	<?php printf($stamp, $date); ?></span>
	<a href="#edit_timestamp" class="edit-timestamp hide-if-no-js" tabindex='4'><?php _e('Edit') ?></a>
	<div id="timestampdiv" class="hide-if-js"><?php touch_time(($action == 'edit'),1,4); ?></div>
</div><?php // /misc-pub-section ?>
<?php endif; ?>

I decided to go a different route from showing the box to contributors. Instead, I show a custom meta box to all users and take the date and time values from the inputs of that meta box for the date and time of the post.

The code I wrote is ghetto, but it works.

Here’s the code I used as a plugin:

function kurt_pagedate_change($id)
{
	global $wpdb, $post_type;
	$post_type_object = get_post_type_object($post_type);
	$can_publish = current_user_can($post_type_object->cap->publish_posts);

	// check if this is a page
	if ( ($post_type == "event" || $post_type == "movie_show" || $post_type == "cclass") && isset($id))
	{

	  if ( $_POST['event_date'] ) {

		$form_date = $_POST['event_date'];
		$form_time = $_POST['event_time'];
		$form_date = $form_date." ".$form_time;
		$date_obj = date_create($form_date);
//		0000-00-00 00:00:00
		$form_date_formatted = date_format($date_obj, 'Y-m-d H:i:s');

		// modify date
		$now = $form_date_formatted;
		$now_gmt 	= $form_date_formatted;
		$query = "UPDATE {$wpdb->posts} SET post_date = '$now', post_date_gmt = '$now_gmt' WHERE ID = '$id'";
		$wpdb->query($query);

	if ( $can_publish ) : // Contributors don't get to "Schedule"
		// set post status as future
		$sql = "UPDATE {$wpdb->posts} SET post_status = 'future'
				WHERE ID = '$id'";
		$wpdb->get_results($sql);
	endif;

	  } // end if event_date has value
	} // end if page
}

/** Add actions **/
add_action('edit_post', 	'kurt_pagedate_change');
add_action('publish_post', 	'kurt_pagedate_change');
add_action('save_post', 	'kurt_pagedate_change');

?>

My code is simpler and it doesnt require modifying the core:

function mostrar_editar_fecha($post)
{
	$post_type_object = get_post_type_object('post');
	$can_publish = current_user_can($post_type_object->cap->publish_posts);

	$datef = __( 'M j, Y @ G:i' );
	if ( 0 != $post->ID ) {
		if ( 'future' == $post->post_status ) { // scheduled for publishing at a future date
			$stamp = __('Scheduled for: <b>%1$s</b>');
		} else if ( 'publish' == $post->post_status || 'private' == $post->post_status ) { // already published
			$stamp = __('Published on: <b>%1$s</b>');
		} else if ( '0000-00-00 00:00:00' == $post->post_date_gmt ) { // draft, 1 or more saves, no date specified
			$stamp = __('Publish <b>immediately</b>');
		} else if ( time() < strtotime( $post->post_date_gmt . ' +0000' ) ) { // draft, 1 or more saves, future date specified
			$stamp = __('Schedule for: <b>%1$s</b>');
		} else { // draft, 1 or more saves, date specified
			$stamp = __('Publish on: <b>%1$s</b>');
		}
		$date = date_i18n( $datef, strtotime( $post->post_date ) );
	} else { // draft (no saves, and thus no date specified)
		$stamp = __('Publish <b>immediately</b>');
		$date = date_i18n( $datef, strtotime( current_time('mysql') ) );
	}

	if (!($can_publish)) : // Contributors don't get to choose the date of publish ?>
		<div class="misc-pub-section curtime misc-pub-section-last">
			<span id="timestamp">
			<?php printf($stamp, $date); ?></span>
			<a href="#edit_timestamp" class="edit-timestamp hide-if-no-js" tabindex='4'><?php _e('Edit') ?></a>
			<div id="timestampdiv" class="hide-if-js"><?php touch_time(($action == 'edit'),1,4); ?></div>
		</div>
	<?php
	endif;
}

add_action ('post_submitbox_misc_actions', 'mostrar_editar_fecha');