Content scheduling in web parts

You need to start with adding two properties to a web part you want to enable scheduling for. You can do so in Site manager -> Development -> Web parts -> edit web part -> Properties:

Attribute name: publishfrom
Attribute type: Date and time
Allow empty value: true
Display attribute in the editing form: true
Field caption: Publish From
Field type: choose according to your needs

Attribute name: publishto
Attribute type: Date and time
Allow empty value: true
Display attribute in the editing form: true
Field caption: Publish To
Field type: choose according to your needs

In order to avoid modifying the code of web parts, we will put the logic of the scheduling to a custom macro which will be used in the Visible property of the web part. In the code of the custom macro you can access values of the publishfrom and publishto fields. Then you can compare them to the DateTime.Now value and return true or false accordingly.

So in general, the macro could look like the following one:

switch (expression.ToLower())
{
case "visibilitymacro":
match = true;
result = "false";

if (sender.SourceTables[0].ContainsKey("publishfrom") && sender.SourceTables[0].ContainsKey("publishto"))
{
DateTime publishFrom = ValidationHelper.GetDateTime(sender.SourceTables[0]["publishfrom"], DateTime.MinValue);
DateTime publishTo = ValidationHelper.GetDateTime(sender.SourceTables[0]["publishto"], DateTime.MaxValue);
if ((DateTime.Compare(publishFrom, DateTime.Now) < 0) && (DateTime.Compare(publishTo, DateTime.Now) > 0))
{
result = "true";
}
else
{
result = "false";
}
}
break;
}

Update for version 6:

switch (expression.ToLower())
{
case "visibilitymacro":
                        e.Match = true;
                        e.Result = "false";

                        ContextResolver macro = (ContextResolver)sender;
                       

                        if (macro.SourceTables[0].ContainsKey("publishfrom") && macro.SourceTables[0].ContainsKey("publishto"))
                        {
                            DateTime publishFrom = ValidationHelper.GetDateTime(macro.SourceTables[0]["publishfrom"], DateTime.MinValue);
                            DateTime publishTo = ValidationHelper.GetDateTime(macro.SourceTables[0]["publishto"], DateTime.MaxValue);
                            if ((DateTime.Compare(publishFrom, DateTime.Now) < 0) && (DateTime.Compare(publishTo, DateTime.Now) > 0))
                            {
                                e.Result = "true";
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                e.Result = "false";
                            }
                        }
                        break;
}


You can find the ~\App_Code\Global\CMS\CMSCustom.cs file with the custom macro attached as well as an export of the CustomRepeater web part with properties publishto and publishfrom.


See also: Developing web parts, Custom macro expression

Applies to: Kentico CMS 5.5R2, an update for version 6