Add an editorial calendar to WordPress

[zgrossbart]

Many bloggers create their posts ahead of time and schedule them one to two months in advance. Scheduling a post makes this possible, but you can only schedule one post at a time. It is easy to skip a day or schedule two posts for the same day without realizing it.

WordPress should have an editorial calendar that let's bloggers see all of their posts in a single calendar and drag and drop them to change the dates. I'm working on a plugin that can do this. You can see a demo here:

​http://www.zackgrossbart.com/extras/sandbox/wp-admin

I would like to take feedback from the core WordPress team and them contribute this back to the WordPress core if it is helpful.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

Sounds very much like plugin material...

[zgrossbart]

This plugin is part of the WordPress plugin database. You can see it here:

​http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/editorial-calendar

You can also see the code here:
​http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/editorial-calendar/trunk

[zgrossbart]

Replying to Denis-de-Bernardy:

Sounds very much like plugin material...

Almost every author would like to see an overview of what their blog looks like in the past, present, and future. This is a small and unobtrusive feature that could really help the WordPress core. Just my opinion.

[nacin]

+1 for wontfix. Sounds like textbook plugin material.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

Closing then...

Re "I would like to take feedback", here's one: consider using a meta_box, to show the calendar of scheduled posts, so it's available in the post editor.

[zgrossbart]

Thank you for the feedback, but I'm a little concerned about adding it to a meta box. Letting users drag and drop posts takes a lot of space and meta boxes are a little small.

I still think this would be a good addition to the WordPress core. I've spoken with many bloggers who feel like this functionality has always been missing. Is there any more to discuss here or is the topic closed?

Thanks.

[nacin]

You may wish to open a thread on wp-hackers to see if there is traction in the development community. (With 2.9 in beta, though, that's what many people are concentrating on.)

If there is traction, then it can be set for a future release. But the bloggers who feel the functionality is missing can simply install the plugin, which is the whole point of plugins. Prevents a bloat of the core, especially for the many people on WP who would never utilize the feature.

There are a lot of plugins out there that are great at what they're designed for, but that doesn't mean they necessarily belong in core.

[janeforshort]

I agree with Denis and nacin that this is plugin material. However, something like this would be good for people using WordPress as a CMS. If you're not satisfied with the reach it has as a standalone plugin, you could try to team up with some other plugin authors who have CMS-leaning plugins, work together, and release a "CMS package" or something.