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Version 1.22   Updated Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 7:19pm

Scheduled Post Shift Plugin for WordPress

This plugin automatically takes your oldest post, and updates its timestamp so that it appears as the latest post on your WordPress site. It does this by utilizing the cron feature built into WordPress 2.1 (and newer). It can rotate all the posts on your site, or just ones in specific categories. You can currently schedule it by setting the number of hours between shifts. For example, set it to 24 hours and it will shift the oldest post every day, at the time that you enabled it.

Download

Instructions

  • Download the above file, rename it from .txt to .php, and upload it to your plugins directory
  • Enable the plugin
  • Configure the plugin options (under DDPostShift)
  • Click the ‘Enable Post Shift’ button to start

Disabling the Schedule

To stop the schedule, simply click the ‘Disable Post Shift’ button on the options page.

Change Log

  • 08-28-08 Version 1.22 - A few bugs fixed. Now supports multiple category rotation.
  • 04-27-08 Version 1.21 - Updated for WordPress 2.5 and to be compatible with WP Security Scan plugin
  • 09-29-07 Version 1.2 - Updated for WordPress 2.3
  • 05-16-07 Version 1.1 - Updated for WordPress 2.2
  • 04-09-07 Version 1.0 - First release

Options

Here are the options available in this plugin’s options page in the WordPress admin panel.

Shift Delay

This is the number of hours between post shifts. The schedule will start as soon as you click the ‘Enable Post Shift’ button.

Category IDs

If left blank, the plugin will operate on all of your posts. If you enter a comma-separated list of category ID’s, it will only update posts in those categories.

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  1. 15
    Thomas
    6-7-07 8:35AM

    Hello,
    Would you ever consider making it possible to have multiple schedules for multiple categories? In the meantime, if I wanted to do this w/o much coding skill, do you think it would work for me to copy your plugin, and rename all the references within it that have to be unique, thereby having two ‘copies’ of the plugin runinning at the same time?

  2. 14
    Admin
    4-29-07 11:30AM

    Christian: Yes, there are other ways to keep one article ‘on top’, but this is not that kind of plugin.

    Also, like a lot of WordPress plugins, this was not written for WPMU, and will not work with it.

  3. 13
    Christian Sasse
    4-28-07 8:57AM

    Is there no other WAY to keep an artiel UP? as First one! Problem with this PLUGIN is the RSS FEED! All Feed users get everytime a NEWS two news FEED MESSAGE after ONE NEW ARTICEL IS ON.

    The NEW one and the ONE which should be ON Top!

    And if you use you WP as MULTIBLOG with diffent regions then this plugin is not useable cause you cannon define aticeles in categories to stay on TOP!

  4. 12
    Admin
    4-26-07 9:19PM

    Rick: For free plugins and scripts, there is no promised troubleshooting. I get a lot of requests and try to help as many as I can, but I simply do not have the time it would take to troubleshoot everyones situation.

    I am not sure how you can check cron, but there may be some other plugins out there that work with it. I was looking for one myself that would list the current jobs, and allow you to delete them. If there is not one already for that, I may see about creating one eventually.

  5. 11
    Rick
    4-26-07 12:50PM

    Thanks for the response!

    I have tried everything from 1 to your default.
    Once I enable it, should it immediately make a change or does it wait for the time period for the first one? I have waited for the time period but I was wondering if there was a quick turn around time for troubleshooting.

    Is there a way I can know if my cron is working or if the problem is with your plugin? Is there another plugin that makes it easy to test the cron?

    Your plugin is just what I need so I am willing to work to get this going!

    Thanks

  6. 10
    Admin
    4-25-07 8:01PM

    Rick: I do not believe that wp-cron.php was meant to be ran directly. That is why it does not display anything.

    I am not sure what to suggest as far as troubleshooting. This plugin is my first use of the wp-cron functionality, and creating it was a bit of a learning experience with wp-cron.

    What did you set the delay to in the options?

  7. 9
    Rick
    4-25-07 2:35PM

    Installed with 2.1.2 but doesn’t seem to work. Is there a way to troubleshoot this. If I run wp-cron.php directly I get nothing…
    Thanks for any help!

  8. 8
    Admin
    4-19-07 10:34PM

    ziranfaze.com: Once again, yes. This is, of course, not a plugin that everyone should install. It was made in particular for certain types of applications, where there is a need to have posts rotated.

  9. 7
    ziranfaze.com
    4-18-07 11:17PM

    then for those readers who have been following our blogs will read the same thing repeatedly? Is this the purpose?

  10. 6
    Admin
    4-18-07 7:57PM

    ziranfaze.com: Yes.

  11. 5
    ziranfaze.com
    4-18-07 8:54AM

    Will it affect the rss display? When an old post updated its timestamp, will it show in rss reader as new post?

  12. 4
    Admin
    4-10-07 9:34AM

    Miriam: You can choose to only shift posts in a specific category. Perhaps in the future I will make an option to shift all posts except those in a specific category.

  13. 3
    Miriam
    4-10-07 6:53AM

    Hi, it’s me again (I wrote about your plugin for creating category columns, and asked if it’s possible to do one for links too, which you did!). This is a good plugin since we invest time in posts, and they get lost in the time-space continuum. However, I definitely have written posts that are dated and refer to events or occurrences that were relevant then, but are not relevant in the present. So I wouldn’t want every single one of my posts to reappear. Maybe there is a way to specify posts as dated and omit them from this cycle, i.e. with a custom field or something?

    Just an idea, not a criticism. Thanks!

  14. 2
    Admin
    4-9-07 9:38PM

    Christian: This tool does not do a one time placement of an article, it continually takes the oldest (post with the oldest date) article and moves it to the front. It keeps doing this, so posts are cycled.

  15. 1
    Christian Sasse
    4-9-07 9:50AM

    hmm Great IDEA :) We use Wordpress als CMS for 19 NEWS-Sides. I was looking for a TOOL that handle a TOP-Article(s) for the sides.

    f.e. You habe a HEAD-LINER Article and want it to stay online for 1 DAY! as FIRST ARTICLE! then another writer post a “simple police text message”. Normaly you MEGA 1st artikel is then at pos. 2 and the textmessage is on pos1!

    I think thats the main idea between “Scheduled Post Shift Plugin for WordPress”! But i saw that you cannot enter an ARTICLE ID! to be sheduled! What means “oldest article?”

    better NAME for the TOOL is “SET TOP-Article” :)

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