What is the easiest way to handle date/time-sensitive content … short of using Javascript or other coding? It might seem that this functionality was enough required that the base product should handle it. For example, is it possible to:
Have different versions of the same page display based on date/time?
Display/hide blocks on one page based on date/time? For example, have Block A with “normal” content and Block B with time-specific content additions, where B displays until a specific date when Block A replaces it?
Something else.
It seems like one might use calendaring features in Concrete, but we don’t really want a calendar.
I am not a novice regarding websites, HTML, CSS, and any number of other GUI-based web development tools, but I am fairly new to Concrete and find it a bit obtuse. I have become manager of a website for our chorus and would like to have blocks/pages related to upcoming concerts disappear or change after concert date.
I’m not sure if you’ve found your answer but there are a few ways I do this. I mainly schedule certain blocks to appear or disappear by using the ‘Schedule guest access’ option on the specific block. Edit Page → Edit Block ->Scheduled guest access. This usually entails having a duplicate block in the same area that contains today’s content which is set to disappear at the same time as it’s future version appears.
The other way is to use the Page settings → Permission → View and click the clock icon next to ‘Guest’ to make the entire page appear at a certain time. This is fine for having a whole new page suddenly appear in the sitemap but that doesn’t happen very often in my experience but YMMV. This method usually means you have to create a whole new page that shows in the future. I don’t like this because then I have random old pages in the sitemap I have to remember to clean up and getting the SEO right is messy (at least it is for me)
Perhaps best for your situation is to use the little clock icon (not intuitive IMO) when Publishing a page through Edit Mode → make changes → Publish. At the bottom of the resulting dialog where you set the date/time for the future content to show, there’s a toggle to tell the system to show the current page contents until the scheduled date/time for the new page content to show.
It would be really nice if the core contained a basic ‘Schedule’ option in Page Settings rather than burying this in several places but it is what it is.
I did figure out suggestion #1 but haven’t yet implemented it because I encountered unexpected behavior.
If A is the “now” block and B is the “display later block”, when I save the page and come back later to edit it, I see only block B. I would expect that, having Administrator privilege, I should see both blocks in the editor at all times
Well now, I haven’t tried this in recent version of concrete. I’m messing around with it now and it appears that scheduling Blocks seems broken to me. My two blocks disappeared completely. Let me check it out further.
NOTE: Upon further review. It appears to working as expected. Lots of moving parts. I must have screwed something up during my first attempt.