Change a Post's Status based on the date from a custom field? (for Event posts)

Question

I've found many posts on this topic and tried to use their solution, but none has worked so far...

I have an Event custom post type with an event_end_date custom field. I'm trying to create a PHP snippet to automatically change the status of an Event post from Published to Draft (or whatever) based on the date in event_end_date. Basically, the day after the end of the event, I want it to be unpublished and changed to draft.

The code I'm currently using is as follows:

wp_schedule_event(time(), 'daily', 'expire_events');
//add_action('init','expire_events');
function expire_events() {
    $the_query = get_posts( 'post_type=event' );    
    foreach($the_query as $single_post) {
        $id=$single_post->ID;
        $event_end_date=get_post_meta($id, '$event_end_date', true );
        if($event_end_date!=''){
            $today=date("Y-m-d");
            if($event_end_date<$today){
                $update_post = array(
                'ID'            => $id,
                'post_status'   =>  'draft',
                'post_type' =>  'event' );
                wp_update_post($update_post);
            }   
        }
    }
}

This code has been copied/pasted from somewhere else and I've adapted it with my custom field name and post type, but it doesn't seem to be working...

Any help would more than welcome, as I don't understand PHP enough to know if what I'm pasting really makes sense :/

Thank you!

PS: The date format in the function seems to match the date format from the custom field, in case you're wondering. For context: I'm using GeneratePress / GenerateBlocks and MetaBox.

Answer 1

There are several little issues with your code. This is what I use for the exact same thing though and it works:

// expire events on date field.
if (!wp_next_scheduled('expire_events')){
  wp_schedule_event(time(), 'daily', 'expire_events'); // this can be hourly, twicedaily, or daily
}

add_action('expire_events', 'expire_events_function');

function expire_events_function() {
    $today = date('Ymd');
    $args = array(
        'post_type' => array('event'), // post types you want to check
        'posts_per_page' => -1 
    );
    $posts = get_posts($args);
    foreach($posts as $p){
        $expiredate = get_field('event_and_date', $p->ID, false, false); // get the raw date from the db
        if ($expiredate) {
            if($expiredate < $today){
                $postdata = array(
                    'ID' => $p->ID,
                    'post_status' => 'draft'
                );
                wp_update_post($postdata);
            }
        }
    }
}

Place this code in your functions.php and load the site one time to set your CRON job. You can text to ensure your CRON is set and run it right away as well with wp-cli or a CRON plugin.

I would suggest next time though to prefix your post types so you know they are your own, for cleaner code, and to reduce potential conflicts. (ie event could be nom_event)

EDIT: Try changing this line:

$expiredate = get_field('event_and_date', $p->ID, false, false);

To this:

$expiredate = get_post_meta($p->ID, 'event_end_date', true );

(this line is what your original code should have looked like as well...without the $ in front of event_end_date)

If this isn't working you can contact me on my site (it's pretty easy to figure out)