Hi Bo,

You'll probably want to register an event handler for the Document.AfterUnPublish method. This is usualy done by hooking up the even during application load. Check this wiki page out for more info:

http://our.umbraco.org/wiki/reference/api-cheatsheet/using-applicationbase-to-register-events

Matt

Ooops, just realised you wanted to catch it several days before.

Hmmm, the only thing I could think then is to create a scheduled task and check the Documents yourself using the API, and checking the UnPublish date.

You could use Richards Task Schedular package to hit a page and check whether the nodes are due to expire, then send out an email:

http://our.umbraco.org/projects/developer-tools/taskscheduler

Matt

Hi Matt, thanks a lot! That's brilliant :)

It seems though that the BeforeUnPublish event would be a better option for me. The only question is have now is, where am I going to place the AppBase.cs class (or the dll?)?

Also, it says: "... automatically when umbraco loads" So basically if no one is logging into the umbraco backend before the node is set to expire/unpublish, the event will never be fired, or am I wrong on this one?

Thanks again! 

All the best,

Bo

Hi Bo,

You can place the class anywhere in you solution, Umbraco automatically looks for anything the extends ApplicationBase (not sure if it works in App_Code though, maybe give it a try).

Basically Umbraco will load these at ApplicationStart and keep them in memory for as long as the app is running (app pool recycle) so as long as you have a steady stream of visitors so that the app doesn't completley go to sleep, you should be ok (failing that just use an uptime service to ping your website).

Hope that helps.

Matt

Hey Matt,

Thanks a lot, appreciated! I think I will tinker around with the event BeforeUnPublish a bit, i'm just not sure when it will actually fire - the "Before.." seems to be an unknown factor for me ;)

If the applicationstart fires whenever a visitor enters the site, it shouldn't be a problem keeping it alive! Else I will just point a cronjob at it.

/ Bo

Hmm, it dosn't seem to actually fire, the BefureUnpublish event and I don't like having control over when "before" is..

I've thought about making a usercontrol that checks all the nodes that's got an expiration date on them and if there's i.e. 2 days left, get the related member and send them an e-mail. I would then place this usercontrol on the MasterPage so it's being called everytime someone hits the page. The expiration date will be a DateTime picker document property on the nodes.

Any thoughts on this solution?

Right, so just to clarify this: I can make a hidden page (well, hidden to the visitors) where my usercontrol will be placed on and then set Richards scheduler to run that page every day? 

If, lets say, that no one is visiting the site for a few days (which would be highly unlikely, but i'm talking worst case now), then the scheduler will not be able to run because the application is "sleeping". Am I right about this? :)

All the best,

Bo

... and this leads me to the following question: how do I get the datetime in C# via doc.getProperty("theDateTimeProperty") ? I have tried to cast it to a DateTime, but I get an error saying "Invalid cast"

Hey Bo,

You should be able to get a string representation from the .Value property:

doc.getProperty("theDateTimeProperty").Value

You should just be able to convert that, but if not, you may need to parse it.

Matt

Hmm, the struggle with dateTime is going on ;)

What I get back from umbraco is the following format: 26/11/2010 00:00:00 and when I try to output a simple DateTime.Now in a textbox it gives me the current date and time in the same format. However, when I try to use any of the DateTime.Parse methods, I get the following error:

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

I honestly fail to see the logic in that :/

What I have now is this:

string expirationDate = doc.getProperty("spotPeriode").Value.ToString();
                        txtTest.Text += DateTime.Now.ToString();
                        DateTime expDate = DateTime.Parse(expirationDate);
                        DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
                        TimeSpan difference = expDate - now;

Edit: I've also tried the Convert.ToDateTime(); but with the same result..

Nevermind, I figured it out :) It's incredible how ~10 minutes off from the screen can give you a boost of clarity, hehe. 

The problem was, that I was looping through all the nodes of a specific alias and I wanted to grab the Date Time picker property from them. And there was the problem: if any of them don't have a date specified, well, then the value is empty and thus not a valid string to parse through ;)

Solved with this simple check:

if (!expirationDate.Equals(string.Empty))
{
    DateTime expDate = DateTime.Parse(expirationDate);
}

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