Automating WooCommerce: How to Auto-Draft Expired Event Products with a WordPress Cron Job

To automatically mark products as “draft” when the event date stored in the date post meta has passed, you can create a scheduled task (cron job) that runs regularly and checks if the event date has passed. If the date has passed, the product will be marked as a draft.

Here’s a step-by-step solution:

Step 1: Add a Custom Cron Job

You can set up a custom cron job that runs daily to check and update the product status based on the date meta value.

Add the Cron Job to functions.php:

// Schedule a daily cron job
function schedule_product_status_check() {
    if (!wp_next_scheduled('check_product_event_dates')) {
        wp_schedule_event(time(), 'daily', 'check_product_event_dates');
    }
}
add_action('wp', 'schedule_product_status_check');

// Unschedule the event when the theme is deactivated
function unschedule_product_status_check() {
    $timestamp = wp_next_scheduled('check_product_event_dates');
    wp_unschedule_event($timestamp, 'check_product_event_dates');
}
add_action('switch_theme', 'unschedule_product_status_check');

This code schedules a daily event called check_product_event_dates, which will run once a day. The unschedule_product_status_check function will ensure the event is unscheduled if the theme is deactivated.

Step 2: Create the Function to Update Products Based on the Event Date

Add the Function to Check Dates and Mark Products as Draft:

// Hook the function to the cron event
add_action('check_product_event_dates', 'check_and_update_product_status');

function check_and_update_product_status() {
    // Today's date (no time, for comparison)
    $today = strtotime(date('Y-m-d'));

    // Query WooCommerce products with the 'date' meta key
    $args = array(
        'post_type' => 'product',
        'posts_per_page' => -1, // Get all products
        'meta_key' => 'date', // Meta key where event date is stored
        'meta_value' => '', // This is required to ensure meta_key is returned
        'meta_compare' => 'EXISTS', // Only get products with 'date' meta
    );

    $products = new WP_Query($args);

    if ($products->have_posts()) {
        while ($products->have_posts()) {
            $products->the_post();
            $product_id = get_the_ID();

            // Get the event date from the product meta (stored as d.m.Y)
            $event_date = get_post_meta($product_id, 'date', true);

            // Convert the event date to a timestamp
            $event_timestamp = strtotime($event_date);

            // Check if the event date has passed
            if ($event_timestamp < $today) {
                // Update the product status to 'draft' if the event date has passed
                $product_data = array(
                    'ID' => $product_id,
                    'post_status' => 'draft',
                );
                wp_update_post($product_data);

                // Optionally, add a log or notification
                error_log("Product ID {$product_id} marked as draft because the event date has passed.");
            }
        }
    }

    // Reset post data
    wp_reset_postdata();
}

Explanation:

1. Schedule Cron Job:
   • The function schedule_product_status_check() creates a daily scheduled task that runs the function check_and_update_product_status once per day.
2. Check Product Event Dates:
   • check_and_update_product_status() queries all WooCommerce products that have the date meta field.
   • For each product, it retrieves the date meta value (in d.m.Y format), converts it to a timestamp using strtotime(), and compares it to today’s date.
   • If the event date has passed, it updates the product status to draft using wp_update_post().
3. Post Status Update:
   • The function wp_update_post() is used to mark the product as draft if the event date has passed.
4. Logging (Optional):
   • The error_log() function is used to log the changes. You can use this for debugging or tracking when products are marked as draft.

Step 3: Testing and Customization

• You can manually trigger the function check_and_update_product_status() by adding it temporarily to an admin action or by using WP-CLI if you want to test it.
• The cron job runs daily ('daily' interval). If you want to check more or less frequently, you can adjust the interval by changing 'daily' to 'hourly', 'twicedaily', or create a custom interval.

Important Notes:

1. Backup Your Data: Since this will affect product status, ensure you have a backup of your site before testing it in a production environment.
2. Cron Job Reliability: WordPress cron jobs rely on visitors to your site to trigger the scheduled events. If your site has low traffic, cron jobs might not run exactly on time. You may consider using a real server cron job to ensure timely execution.