Project Description:

The Views Scheduler project will create a flexible method to automatically manipulate content. While the central goal is to be able to automatically publish content, once the system is in place the system can be used to automatically unpublish, automatically promote content, and even automatically classify content simply by making sure the defined view applies the proper rules. If written sufficiently generically, the view could even be used for content notification. The Scheduler can take advantage of the existing APIs of both Views, Actions and the Scheduler API to put together a flexible framework.

Project Motivation:

Currently, scheduling in Drupal is a somewhat onerous task. There exists a very simple scheduler module, but each node must be scheduled individually. In content publishing, it is sometimes necessary to be able to publish content on a regular basis, and it is important that this system be relatively convenient for the authors and editors of the content so that they can focus on their primary jobs (content) rather than site administrivia.

Success Criteria:

The project will be deemed a success if a view can be reliably scheduled and actions taken on the view are performed as expected.

Roadmap:

1) Become familiar with the following: Views, Actions and Scheduler API.
2) Formulate a database strategy to work with the scheduler API.
3) Formulate the necessary data to make a view work with this; in general, to be successful there needs to be some kind of threshold to make the content appear in the view. The most important strategy is to ensure that material that is acted on does not remain in the view.
4) Create a UI to associate scheduling with a view.
5) Create a UI to associate a set of actions with the schedule.