Drift: Sunset

Free WordPress plugin by Drift Creative Systems. Adds an expiry date and time to posts. When it passes, a published, scheduled or private post is switched to Draft. Upcoming and recent expiries are listed under Tools → Drift: Sunset.

• WordPress.org slug: drift-sunset (submission pending)
• Licence: GPL-2.0-or-later
• Requires WordPress 6.0+, PHP 7.4+

The user-facing documentation is readme.txt, which WordPress.org displays. This file is for developers.

Structure

drift-sunset.php                              Bootstrap: duplicate-install guard, constants, requires, init, (de)activation hooks
includes/
  class-drift-sunset-expiry.php               Meta box, save + scheduling, cron callbacks (expire, sweep), list column, overview queries, activation/upgrade
  class-drift-sunset-settings.php             Settings tab (manage_options): required categories, drift_sunset_settings option
  class-drift-sunset-required.php             Required expiry by category: classic-editor server fallback, notices, shared message
  class-drift-sunset-admin.php                Tools → Drift: Sunset: Overview + Settings tabs, cron warnings, admin footer, Plugins-row link
assets/
  admin.js                                    jQuery: default time on date pick, "Clear expiry", classic-editor required check
  admin-block.js                              Block editor required check (wp.data lock + notice, editor.preSavePost). Only loaded when required categories apply
  admin.css                                   Box fields, Expired label, overview screen
uninstall.php                                 Removes options, post meta and cron events, on every site in a network

Drift_Sunset_Expiry::init() runs straight from the bootstrap, not on plugins_loaded, because the cron callbacks must be hooked when wp-cron.php fires them.

How expiry works

1. Saving the edit screen with a date stores a UTC timestamp in _drift_sunset_expires and schedules a single drift_sunset_expire_post event with the post ID. Past dates are scheduled for "now", so they fire on the next cron run.
2. Drift_Sunset_Expiry::expire() re-reads the meta (the event may be stale), switches publish / future / private to draft, fires drift_sunset_post_expired, deletes _drift_sunset_expires and stores _drift_sunset_expired_at.
3. drift_sunset_sweep (hourly) catches anything overdue whose single event was lost. Max 100 posts per run.
4. save() bails without the box's nonce. That covers quick edit, REST-only saves and the plugin's own wp_update_post() during expiry, so expiry can't re-trigger a save.

Stored data

All of it is removed in uninstall.php. Never rename these keys or hooks once released: sites have live data and queued events under them.

Hooks

// Email the author when their post expires.
add_action( 'drift_sunset_post_expired', function ( $post_id, $post ) {
    $author = get_userdata( $post->post_author );
    if ( $author ) {
        wp_mail( $author->user_email, 'Post expired', get_the_title( $post ) . ' is now a draft.' );
    }
}, 10, 2 );

Drift_Sunset_Expiry::DEFAULT_TIME (23:59) is the time used when only a date is picked. It's a constant, not a setting.

Development

• No build step. Edit assets/*.js / *.css directly.
• Coding standard: phpcs.xml.dist (WordPress, prefixes drift_sunset / DRIFT_SUNSET).
• Run Plugin Check before every release. The PHPCS-based checks don't work in WordPress Playground (its filesystem can't flock()), so use a real install, e.g. WP-CLI with the SQLite drop-in:

  wp plugin install plugin-check --activate
  wp plugin check drift-sunset --include-low-severity-errors --include-low-severity-warnings \
    --require=./wp-content/plugins/plugin-check/cli.php

  Check a copy built from .distignore, not the repo, so dev files don't trip the file_type check.

• Expiry unpublishes live content. Test any change to expire(), sweep() or save() with a past date, a future date and a cleared date, on a site where WP-Cron is running.
• Directory guidelines review: the wp-plugin-directory-guidelines Claude Code skill.

Releasing

1. Bump the version in three places: the Version: header, DRIFT_SUNSET_VERSION and Stable tag: in readme.txt. Add a changelog entry to both readme.txt and CHANGELOG.md.
2. Merge develop → main, then publish a GitHub release tagged vX.Y.Z.
3. .github/workflows/release.yml checks the three versions match, builds drift-sunset.zip from .distignore and attaches it to the release.
4. Once approved on WordPress.org, set the repo variable WPORG_DEPLOY=true and the secrets SVN_USERNAME / SVN_PASSWORD. Releases then deploy to SVN automatically, and readme/asset changes on main sync on their own (wporg-assets.yml).

WordPress.org assets (icon, banners, screenshots) live in .wordpress-org/. Screenshots still need adding as screenshot-1.png (Post Expiry box), screenshot-2.png (overview) and screenshot-3.png (Settings tab) to match readme.txt.

Licence

GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

Copyright © 2026 Drift Creative Systems Ltd

Drift Creative Systems Ltd. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17548220. Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London W1W 5PF