Draft List

If you’re upgrading from a previous release of Draft List (i.e. pre version 2.5) please check out the FAQ – a number of changes have been made in this release that you need to be aware of

Draft List allows you to both manage your draft and scheduled posts more easily but also to promote them by showing them on your site via shortcode or widget – use it to show your visitors what’s “coming soon” or as a great SEO tool.

How easy is it display a list of draft posts? Here’s an example of how you could use it in a post or page…

[drafts limit=5 type=post order=ma scheduled=no template='{{ul}}{{draft}} {{icon}}']

This would display a list of up to 5 draft posts in ascending modified date sequence, with an icon displayed to the right of each if the draft is scheduled.

Key features include…

• Both widgets and shortcodes are available for you to show off your up-coming content
• Output is highly configurable – create your own look by using a template, identify scheduled posts with an icon, sequence the results in various ways and even narrow down the results to a specific timeframe
• Click on any of the drafts posts listed to edit them
• A meta box in the editor screen allows you to omit individual posts from any list outputs
• Tested up to PHP 8.2
• Fully complies with WordPress coding standards
• Compliant with the stronger WordPress VIP coding standards, as well as compatibility with their platform
• Community plugin – visit the Github page to get involved with the latest code development, request enhancements and report issues

Iconography is courtesy of the very talented Janki Rathod.

Shortcode Parameters

The following shortcode parameters are valid…

• cache= : How long to cache the output for, in hours. Defaults to half an hour. Set to No to not cache at all. Whenever you save a post any cache will be cleared to ensure that any lists are updated.
• date= : The format of any dates output. This uses the PHP date formatting system – read here for the formatting codes. Defaults to F j, Y, g:i a.
• folder= : The scheduled icon will be, by default, the one in the plugin folder named scheduled.png. However, use this parameter to specify a folder within your theme that you’d prefer the icon to be fetched from.
• limit= : The maximum number of draft items to display. The default is 0, which is unlimited.
• order= : This is the sequence that you’d like to order the results in. It consists of 2 codes – the first is either t, m or c to represent the title, modified date or created date and the second is a or d for ascending or descending. Therefore order=td will display the results in descending title sequence. The default is descending modified date.
• pending= : True or false, where to include pending posts in the result. By default, pending posts will not be included.
• scheduled= : True or false, where to include scheduled posts in the result. By default, scheduled posts will be included.
• template= : This is the template which formats the output. See the section below on * *Templates** for further information.
• type= : This allows you to limit the results to either post or page. The default is both.
• words= : The minimum number of words that must be present in the draft for it to be included. Defaults to 0.

To restrict the posts to a particular timeframe you can use the following 2 parameters. You simply state, in words, how long ago the posts must be dated for e.g. “2 days”, “3 months”, etc.

• created= : his reflects how long ago the post/page must have been created for it to be listed. For example 6 months would only list drafts that were created in the last 6 months.
• modified= : This reflects how long ago the post/page must have been modified last for it to be listed. For example 6 months would only list drafts that have been modified in the last 6 months.

Templates

The template parameter allows you to format the output by allowing you to specify how each line of output will display. A number of tags can be added, and you can mix these with HTML. The available tags are as follows…

• {{ul}} – Specifies this is an un-ordered list (i.e. bullet point output). This MUST be specified at the beginning of the template if it is to be used.
• {{ol}} – Specifies this is an ordered list (i.e. number output). This MUST be specified at the beginning of the template if it is to be used.
• {{icon}} – This is the icon that indicates a scheduled post.
• {{draft}} – This is the post detail and is the only REQUIRED tag.
• {{author}} – This is the name of the post author.
• {{author+link}} – This is the name of the post author with, where available, a link to their URL.
• {{words}} – The number of words in the draft post.
• {{chars}} – The number of characters (exc. spaces) in the post.
• {{chars+space}} – The number of characters (inc. spaces) in the post.
• {{created}} – The date/time the post was created.
• {{modified}} – The date/time the post was last modified.
• {{category}} – Shows the first category assigned to the post.
• {{categories}} – Shows all categories assigned to the post, comma separated.

If {{ul}} or {{ol}} are specified then all the appropriate list tags will be added to the output. If neither are used then it’s assumed that line output will be controlled by yourself.

Omitting Posts/Pages from Results

If you wish to omit a page or post from the list then you can do this in 3 ways…

1. By giving the post a title beginning with an exclamation mark. You can then remove this before publishing the post.
2. The post and page editor has a meta box, where you can select to hide the page/post.
3. You can add a custom field to a page/post with a name of ‘draft_hide’ and a value of ‘Yes’

Edit Link

If the current user can edit the draft item being listed then it will be linked to the appropriate edit page. The user then simply needs to click on the draft item to edit it.

There are separate permissions for post and page editing, so an editor with just one permission may find that they can only edit some of the draft items.

Drafts that don’t have a title will not be shown on the list UNLESS the current user has edit privileges for the draft – in this case a title of [No Title] will be shown.

Using a Widget

Sidebar widgets can be easily added. In Administration simply click on the Widgets option under the Appearance menu. Draft Posts will be one of the listed widgets. Drag it to the appropriate sidebar on the right hand side and then choose your options.

Save the result and that’s it! You can use unlimited widgets, so you can add different lists to different sidebars.