Post or Pages with Expiration date in WordPress

Post or Pages with Expiration date can be created in WordPress either manually by using some php codes or simply by using plugins.

You might wounder why you will need to use Post or Pages with Expiration date in your blog. Read on.

Why we need Post or Pages with Expiration date?

Imagine a website of news, especially if focused on a very specific niche, where there is information that is outdated, no longer makes sense, either for upgrades or changes of direction in the development. Surely you can imagine some situations that can apply Post or Pages with Expiration date.

Even if you not have this type of busy blog, you might have posted “Happy New Year” kind of posts.

It looks bad to read Happy New Year 1911 kind of post in 2011 (if function exits!), so just trash Post or Pages with Expiration date automatically using plugins or manually.

Manual method to create Post or Pages with Expiration date

Add this bit of code to your functions.php file if you you want to get  Post or Pages with Expiration date feature:

// Add expiration shortcode //

function give-any-name_expire_shortcode($args = array(), $content = ”) {

extract(shortcode_atts(

array(

‘off‘ => ‘tomorrow‘, // shortcode will not work without a set date

),

$args

));

if (strtotime($off) > time()) {

return $content;

}

return ”;

}

add_shortcode(‘expires‘, ‘ give-any-name_expire_shortcode‘);

// Add showafter shortcode //

function give-any-name_showafter_shortcode($args = array(), $content = ”) {

extract(shortcode_atts(

array(

‘on‘ => ‘tomorrow‘, // shortcode will not work without a set date

),

$args

));

if (strtotime($on) < time()) {

return $content;

}

return ”;

}

add_shortcode(‘showafter’, ‘ give-any-name_showafter_shortcode‘);

We are not sure who originally written this nice piece of code to create Post or Pages with Expiration date. We found many months ago in WordPress forum thread and copied this code to set Post or Pages with Expiration date for our use. So, can not give the credit. Any info from visitors about who originally created this Post or Pages with Expiration date function will be helpful.

Anyway, change that red colored give-any-name to your own name. Using phbb style shortcode will be possible to set  Post or Pages with Expiration date; like [expires off=”your date”]your date which will appear[/expires] and similarly, “expires on”, “show after” can be used to create Post or Pages with Expiration date.

WordPress Plugins to create Post or Pages with Expiration date

With plugins, it becomes more easy to create Post or Pages with Expiration date. There are several plugins for creating Post or Pages with Expiration date.

Post Expirator , Content Scheduler are just few examples to create your custom Post or Pages with Expiration date.