I've been asked to fix a problem on a wordpress site. The problem is caused by the fact posts should of been used instead of pages. However the site is up and running and quickest option would be to fix the problem using a hack of sorts.
The site has an events section, each event is a page (this is the issue, should really be a post). In order to have upcoming and past events the post date is used, therefore upcoming events has a post status of 'future'.
There's are list page of events which shows them fine by using the correct query_post(). Although the problem arises when you click through to actual event (which is a future page). If your logged in as an Admin then the page shows but if your not logged in you get a 404 page.
Now if they where posts then the "The Future is Now!" plugin would solve this problem. I have a feeling the only way round the problem is to rewrite part of core Wordpress files.
Any advice would be great, I have a lot of experience with Wordpress so even if you can point me in the right direction.
Cheers, Jason
[Update]
Thanks maiorano84 for your detailed response. In the long run I intend to move them to posts but in the meantime they've requested we fix it asap without changing any urls (today they sent out a mass email with a list of events without checking any links)
Your solution of including post_status future doesn't work in this case as wordpress doesn't get to the stage of loading the template. Something in wordpress core stops it from getting that far. Ideally if they was a hook I could use to override this behavior in the meantime that would be excellent but if it comes to it I will temporarily edit the core files.
[Update 2]
I now know the two functions that need editing or use a hook that relates to them.
First of we is_404()
which needs changed to not add future pages as 404
Second we have is_page()
need to return true if a page is future
[Update 3]
I've found how to do this in the core. If you go to wp-includes/query.php
line 2682. Copy this in instead of the old function it works correct. If you have a better way please let me know. Thanks.
/** Future Pages **/
// Check post status to determine if post should be displayed.
if ( !empty($this->posts) && ($this->is_single || $this->is_page) ) {
$status = get_post_status($this->posts[0]);
$post_status_obj = get_post_status_object($status);;
if ( !$post_status_obj->public ) {
if ( $post_status_obj->protected ) {
$this->is_preview = true;
print_r($status);
if ( 'draft' != $status ) {
$this->posts[0]->post_date = current_time('mysql');
} else {
$this->posts = array();
}
} elseif ( $post_status_obj->private ) {
if ( ! current_user_can($read_cap, $this->posts[0]->ID) )
$this->posts = array();
} else {
$this->posts = array();
}
}
/** END **/