Drupal – Rules – Unpublish a Node After a Given Period X Days …

Here is a small howto that will show you how to unpublish a node after a given time can be in days, in seconds  … Drupal  using the module Rules

First, what does the module Rules?

Rules can be viewed as an evolution of the core module and trigger is the enhanced version of drupal 6 work flowing to Drupal 5.

Rules allow to discover events, perform actions (post a comment, send an email …) automatically with the possibility of moving conditions.

Here is a small howto to un-publish content after a certain time, it could be 15 days, 30 seconds, Wednesday, Nov 09 …

First, you must install the Rules.

1. Creating Rule Sets: Go to / admin / rules / rule_sets

• Click on “Add a new rule set”.
• Add a title, eg “Unpublish content {} rule set” with the name and machine-readable “unpublish_content.”
• In the Arguments, select “Content” as data type, enter “Content {argument}” as a title and “unpublish_content_content” as the machine readable name.
• Then save your form.
• You will be redirected to the overview of the rules sets and you can see the rule set that you just created.
• Then click on it and add a new rule by clicking the “Add new rule”
• Add a title such as “Unpublish {action} rule” and click Save.
• You will then be on a page for editing the rule click on “Add an action.”
• You will have a selection list, you should choose “Node | Remove the contents of the publication” (NOT “Rule Set | Publish content”!) And confirm by clicking Next.
• You have nothing to do normally in the form on which you have been directed, except change the title to “Unpublish content {action}” to more easily track and then save.
• Go to the page admin / rules / rule_sets and click on your rule (rule Unpublish content {set})
• Then click on the action (action {rule} Unpublish) to edit
• Add Action and select “Schedule Unpublish content»
• Choose the identifier [unpublish_content_content: nest] if you follow the terms I used, otherwise fit machine readable name given in the above arguments.
• Set the date of execution, for example 2011-12-12 10:33:55 or “one day”, you can refer to the PHP formats strtotime ()

2. Creation of or triggers (trigger): Go to / admin / rules / trigger

• Click on “Add a New Rule”
• Choose to label “Unpublish content triggered rule {}”
• Select “Node | After saving new content” and save
• Add Action
• Select “Rule Scheduler | Schedule rule Unpublish content {set}”
• Add Condition “Node | Content is published ‘
• You can also add a requirement for a given content type, why add a new condition
• And select “Node | Content Type as” and choose your or your content types.

Well, your rule is created and will be executed each time when the cron run. I hope this tutorial has helped you a little.