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Schedule Drafts to Publish X/Day with Real Cron (Step-by-Step)

WordPress does not natively support scheduling a fixed number of draft posts to publish daily using a real system cron job. This can be a problem if you want to automate gradual content rollout without manually publishing drafts. The quick fix is to set up a real cron job that runs a WP-CLI command to publish a specified number of drafts each day.

Quick Fix

1. Write a WP-CLI command to publish X drafts per run.
2. Set up a system cron job to run this command daily.
3. Enable logging to track published posts and errors.

Why This Happens

WordPress has a built-in cron system (WP-Cron) that relies on site visits to trigger scheduled tasks. This is unreliable for precise scheduling, especially on low-traffic sites. Also, WordPress does not have a default feature to publish a fixed number of drafts daily. Using a real system cron with WP-CLI allows precise control and reliability.

Step-by-step

1. Create a WP-CLI Command to Publish Drafts

Create a PHP file in your theme or a custom plugin directory, for example publish-drafts.php, and add the following code:

<?php
if ( defined( 'WP_CLI' ) && WP_CLI ) {
    /**
     * Publish a fixed number of draft posts.
     *
     * ## OPTIONS
     *
     * <count>
     * : Number of drafts to publish.
     *
     * ## EXAMPLES
     *
     *     wp publish-drafts 5
     */
    class Publish_Drafts_Command {
        public function __invoke( $args, $assoc_args ) {
            list( $count ) = $args;
            $count = intval( $count );
            if ( $count <= 0 ) {
                WP_CLI::error( 'Count must be a positive integer.' );
                return;
            }

            $drafts = get_posts( array(
                'post_status'    => 'draft',
                'post_type'      => 'post',
                'posts_per_page' => $count,
                'orderby'        => 'date',
                'order'          => 'ASC',
                'fields'         => 'ids',
            ) );

            if ( empty( $drafts ) ) {
                WP_CLI::success( 'No drafts found to publish.' );
                return;
            }

            foreach ( $drafts as $post_id ) {
                $updated = wp_update_post( array(
                    'ID'          => $post_id,
                    'post_status' => 'publish',
                    'post_date'  => current_time( 'mysql' ),
                    'post_date_gmt' => current_time( 'mysql', 1 ),
                ), true );

                if ( is_wp_error( $updated ) ) {
                    WP_CLI::warning( "Failed to publish post ID {$post_id}: " . $updated->get_error_message() );
                } else {
                    WP_CLI::log( "Published post ID {$post_id}" );
                }
            }

            WP_CLI::success( "Published {$count} drafts (or fewer if not enough drafts)." );
        }
    }

    WP_CLI::add_command( 'publish-drafts', 'Publish_Drafts_Command' );
}

Then include this file in your theme’s functions.php or better, in a custom plugin:

if ( defined( 'WP_CLI' ) && WP_CLI ) {
    require_once __DIR__ . '/publish-drafts.php';
}

2. Test the WP-CLI Command

Run this command in your WordPress root directory to publish 3 drafts:

wp publish-drafts 3

You should see output confirming published posts or no drafts found.

3. Set Up a System Cron Job

Open your server’s crontab editor:

crontab -e

Add a line to run the WP-CLI command daily at 2 AM (adjust path and user accordingly):

0 2 * * * /usr/bin/wp --path=/var/www/html/your-site publish-drafts 3 >> /var/log/wp-publish-drafts.log 2>&1

/usr/bin/wp is the WP-CLI binary path; adjust if different. --path points to your WordPress root.

4. Enable Logging

The cron job above appends output and errors to /var/log/wp-publish-drafts.log. Make sure the log file is writable by the cron user. You can monitor this log to verify daily publishing and troubleshoot issues.

Works on

• Web servers: Apache, Nginx, LiteSpeed
• Hosting control panels: cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin
• Linux-based servers with WP-CLI installed
• Any environment where you have SSH access and can create system cron jobs

FAQ

Q1: Can I schedule publishing drafts more than once per day?

Yes. Adjust the cron timing syntax to run multiple times per day, for example every 6 hours:

0 */6 * * * /usr/bin/wp --path=/var/www/html/your-site publish-drafts 3 >> /var/log/wp-publish-drafts.log 2>&1

Q2: What if I want to publish drafts of a custom post type?

Modify the WP-CLI command’s post_type parameter in get_posts() to your custom post type slug.

Q3: How do I install WP-CLI if it’s not available?

Follow the official WP-CLI installation guide at https://wp-cli.org/#installing. It requires PHP and command-line access.

Q4: Can I schedule publishing drafts based on categories or tags?

Yes. Extend the get_posts() query with tax_query parameters to filter drafts by category or tag.

Q5: What if my hosting does not allow system cron jobs?

Consider using a third-party cron service (e.g., EasyCron) to trigger a custom WP-CLI endpoint or use WP-Cron with a plugin that improves its reliability.…