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.