Two dates
Every content record can carry a publish at date and an unpublish at date.
- Publish at in the future: the record stays invisible to visitors until that moment, then appears on its own.
- Unpublish at: the record disappears at that moment, without being deleted.
Both are optional and independent. You can schedule an appearance without an end, an end without a scheduled start, or bracket a piece of content with both.
What this is good for
- An announcement that must not leak before a specific time.
- A seasonal promotion that should stop being visible the moment it ends, rather than the next morning when someone remembers.
- A notice with a known expiry — an event, a deadline, an office closure.
Timezones
Scheduled times are evaluated against the server's clock. If you are in a different timezone from the server, "9am" may not be the 9am you meant. For anything time-critical, work out the equivalent server time rather than assuming, and where the exact minute matters, schedule slightly early.
Scheduling is not a review step
A common mistake is treating a future publish date as "someone will check this before it goes live". Nobody will. Scheduled content publishes exactly as it stands, mistakes included.
Review before you schedule, not after.
Keep track of what is pending
Scheduled content is invisible on the site, which makes it easy to forget. Before a launch, check the list of records with future publish dates — the failure mode is a page that was scheduled, then superseded, and goes live anyway saying something no longer true.
Unpublish rather than delete
For anything that might come back, or that anyone might link to, unpublishing is the better tool. It is instantly reversible and it keeps the record and its history intact.