Schedule content items publishing with workflow enabled

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In this post I am going to show you how to publish and schedule content items with workflow enabled.

First we need to create a user control. I am going to work with News items. Let's say my control is named ScheduleNews.ascx.

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="ScheduleNews.ascx.cs" Inherits="CustomControls_ScheduleNews" %> 
 
 
 <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Button" onclick="Button1_Click" />

Then, register this control in our web.config file.

<toolboxControls> 
  <clear /> 
  <add name="ScheduleNews" 
  section="Custom" 
  url="~/CustomControls/ScheduleNews.ascx" /> 
 ...
 </toolboxControls>

Now we are going to add some logic in our control code behind. The idea is that, we have to read Publication_Date and Expiration_Date metafields, check the dates, and set new time to these metafields programmatically. Then, we need to iterate through all workflow states till we reach the last one - "Publish" state.

ScheduleNews.ascx.cs

using System; 
 using System.Collections.Generic; 
 using System.Web; 
 using System.Web.UI; 
 using System.Web.UI.WebControls; 
 using Telerik.Cms.Engine; 
 using System.Collections; 
 using Telerik.Workflow; 
 
 public partial class CustomControls_ScheduleNews : System.Web.UI.UserControl 
 { 
 
  protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) 
     { 
     } 
  protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) 
     { 
         ContentManager manager = new ContentManager("News"); 
         IList Items = manager.GetContent(); 
  foreach (IContent item in Items) 
         { 
  //READ METAFIELDS  
  // OPTIOANLLY WORKS WITH CATEGORIES  
  //string Category = item.GetMetaData("Category").ToString();  
             DateTime pubDate = (DateTime)item.GetMetaData("Publication_Date"); 
             DateTime expDate = (DateTime)item.GetMetaData("Expiration_Date"); 
  //OPTIONALLY CHECK IF OUR ITEMS ARE IN "MyCategory"  
  //if (Category.ToString().Equals("MyCategory"))  
  //{  
  //get the content for editing  
             StagedContent itemToChange = manager.GetStagedContent(item.ID) as StagedContent; 
  //OPTIONALLY CHECK EVEN OR ODD DATES(2,4,6...1,3,5)  
  bool changed = false; 
  if (pubDate.Day % 2 == 0) 
             { 
  //DAY IS EVEN HERE  
                 DateTime newTime = DateTime.Today; 
  //SET NEW PUBLICATION DATE  
                 itemToChange.SetMetaData("Publication_Date", newTime.AddDays(5)); 
  //SET NEW EXPIRATION DATE  
  //THE ITEM EXPIRE IN 30 DAYS FROM NOW ON  
                 itemToChange.SetMetaData("Expiration_Date", newTime.AddDays(30)); 
                 changed = true; 
             } 
  else 
             { 
  //DAY IS ODD  
                 changed = true; 
             } 
  //SAVE CONTENT  
  if (changed) 
  //SAVE IN DRAFT  
                 itemToChange.Status = ContentStatus.Draft; 
             manager.SaveContent(itemToChange); 
  //ITERATE THROUGH ALL WORKFLOW STATES TILL WE REACH PUBLICATION DATE  
             StagedContent staged = manager.GetCurrentState(itemToChange.ID); 
             ExecuteActivity(staged.WorkflowInstanceId, "SendForApproval"); 
             Nolics.ORMapper.Base.DataConnection.InitWebRequest(); 
 
  //PASS THROUH APPROVE STATUS  
             ExecuteActivity(staged.WorkflowInstanceId, "Approve"); 
             Nolics.ORMapper.Base.DataConnection.InitWebRequest(); 
 
  //PASS THROUGH PUBLUISH STATUS  
             ExecuteActivity(staged.WorkflowInstanceId, "Publish"); 
 
         } 
     }
 
  private EventActivity FindActivity(string name, IList<Activity> activities) 
     { 
  foreach (Activity act in activities) 
         { 
  if ((act is EventActivity) && (((EventActivity)act).CommandName == name)) 
  return (EventActivity)act; 
             EventActivity ea = FindActivity(name, act.Activities); 
  if (ea != null) 
  return ea; 
         } 
  return null; 
     } 
 
  private void ExecuteActivity(Guid id, string activityName) 
     { 
         WorkflowInstance instance = WorkflowRuntime.Instance.GetWorkflow(id); 
  if (instance != null) 
         { 
             ContentWorkflow workflow = (ContentWorkflow)instance.Activity; 
             EventActivity activity = FindActivity(activityName, workflow.Activities); 
  if (activity != null) 
             { 
                 activity.Execute(WorkflowRuntime.Instance); 
             } 
         } 
     } 
 }

Conclusion: When you run the code news items Publicaton_Date and Expiration_Date will be changed and the content will be published even with workflow enabled only with one click on the button.

Schedule content items publishing with workflow enabled

The Progress Team