The ExpirationDate WordPress Plugin

This plugin has been revised to be the Atropos WordPress plugin, which provides a better interface. Please upgrade and use that one instead.

The ExpirationDate plugin lets you set a deletion date for your posts (and pages).

To set an expiration date, you add a custom field called “Expiration Date” (no quotes) with the deletion date as the value. The date should be in YYYY/MM/DD format.

Important Note: The expired posts/pages are DELETED. Be sure that you want to do this. I disavow any responsibility if you delete your entire blog because you weren’t being careful.

Example

Suppose you want to delete a post on November 18, 2008. You would scroll down to the Custom Fields section of the Write/Edit Post screen and enter “Expiration Date” and “2008/11/18″ like this:

Setting a Custom Field in WordPress

After it is set, it will look like this:

A Set Custom Field in WordPress

Caveat

This plugin uses WordPress’s cron feature. This allows you to set a time for things to happen, such as deleting a post. All well and good, except that it doesn’t actually happen until someone looks at a page AFTER that time. And then it takes a few seconds to actually happen. The net result for this plugin is that expired posts will still be there for the first page view of the deletion day and possibly several more if there is a lot of traffic around midnight. The post will be deleted, but not precisely at midnight. Such is WordPress’s cron.

4 Comments

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Made Monday, 18 of August , 2008 at 9:06 am

[...] seem to find a good widget etc that will make a post expire on a certain date. Try this one – The ExpirationDate WordPress Plugin @ WordPress Plugins __________________ These are mine: Voucherfrenzy – Discount Codes + [...]

Comment by Dan

Made Thursday, 22 of January , 2009 at 8:26 pm

I’m liking the look of this plugin.

My question is do you think this plugin would be able to be re-written to expire comments as opposed to posts? I run a similar type of site in the UK, similar to your review site – but using the comments fields for offers for retailers/merchants. The merchants are the posts and their info needs to stay in place. Cats are product types and Tags are brands.

If you think the comments on WordPress are able to be expired then send me an email.

Dan

Comment by Serj

Made Monday, 23 of February , 2009 at 5:31 pm

How to adjust, that all posts to delete than 30 days are more senior? Without adjustment in each post.

Comment by mat

Made Thursday, 16 of April , 2009 at 11:44 am

is there an option so when the posts expires it moves to a different category?

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