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There is a patch to make the Scheduler "Publish On" date render itself as a field: http://drupal.org/node/1203958

This presents a new Checkbox called "Show Scheduling options in vertical tabs", which you can uncheck to display as a field. Then you give it some weight so it shows up where you want it to.

It's been working for me in production for a month or so.

If you would rather accomplish this using Rules, you would probably want to do this:

1. Create a Rule that when Cron tasks are ran (event), Load all nodes of a type (action)
2. Create a Rule that when Content is viewed (event), it checks the value of the Date field (condition) and checks that the Publish status is (not published)
3. Add an action to the second Rule that publishes the node

So not only is this Rule kinda complicated and messy, but it also doesn't address what happens when a user decides to Unpublish the node. Then the rule will Publish it again automatically. That could be problematic, and the way to address it is equally messy.

The Scheduler module handles all of this pretty nicely, which is why I ended up using it. I went back and forth between Schedule and Rules, and ended up decided that Scheduler would allow me to sleep better at night.

There is a patch to make the Scheduler "Publish On" date render itself as a field: http://drupal.org/node/1203958

This presents a new Checkbox called "Show Scheduling options in vertical tabs", which you can uncheck to display as a field. Then you give it some weight so it shows up where you want it to.

It's been working for me in production for a month or so.

EDIT: Here's a better way to make this happen with both Scheduler and Rules.

1. Create a Rule, "After saving new content"

2. Add a condition of "Content is of type"

3. Add an "Execute PHP" action with this:

   $node->publish_on = strtotime("[node:field-datefield-here]"); scheduler_node_insert($node)

4. Create a Rule, "After updating existing content"

5. Add a condition of "Content is of type"

6. Add an "Execute PHP" action with this:

   $node->publish_on = strtotime("[node:field-datefield-here]"); scheduler_node_update($node);

There is a patch to make the Scheduler "Publish On" date render itself as a field: http://drupal.org/node/1203958

It's been working for me in production for a month or so.

If you would rather accomplish this using Rules, you would probably want to do this:

1. Create a Rule that when Cron tasks are ran (event), Load all nodes of a type (action)
2. Create a Rule that when Content is viewed (event), it checks the value of the Date field (condition) and checks that the Publish status is (not published)
3. Add an action to the second Rule that publishes the node

So not only is this Rule kinda complicated and messy, but it also doesn't address what happens when a user decides to Unpublish the node. Then the rule will Publish it again automatically. That could be problematic, and the way to address it is equally messy.

The Scheduler module handles all of this pretty nicely, which is why I ended up using it. I went back and forth between Schedule and Rules, and ended up decided that Scheduler would allow me to sleep better at night.

There is a patch to make the Scheduler "Publish On" date render itself as a field: http://drupal.org/node/1203958

This presents a new Checkbox called "Show Scheduling options in vertical tabs", which you can uncheck to display as a field. Then you give it some weight so it shows up where you want it to.

It's been working for me in production for a month or so.

If you would rather accomplish this using Rules, you would probably want to do this:

1. Create a Rule that when Cron tasks are ran (event), Load all nodes of a type (action)
2. Create a Rule that when Content is viewed (event), it checks the value of the Date field (condition) and checks that the Publish status is (not published)
3. Add an action to the second Rule that publishes the node

So not only is this Rule kinda complicated and messy, but it also doesn't address what happens when a user decides to Unpublish the node. Then the rule will Publish it again automatically. That could be problematic, and the way to address it is equally messy.

The Scheduler module handles all of this pretty nicely, which is why I ended up using it. I went back and forth between Schedule and Rules, and ended up decided that Scheduler would allow me to sleep better at night.

There is a patch to make the Scheduler "Publish On" date render itself as a field: http://drupal.org/node/1203958

It's been working for me in production for a month or so

There is a patch to make the Scheduler "Publish On" date render itself as a field: http://drupal.org/node/1203958

It's been working for me in production for a month or so.

If you would rather accomplish this using Rules, you would probably want to do this:

1. Create a Rule that when Cron tasks are ran (event), Load all nodes of a type (action)
2. Create a Rule that when Content is viewed (event), it checks the value of the Date field (condition) and checks that the Publish status is (not published)
3. Add an action to the second Rule that publishes the node

So not only is this Rule kinda complicated and messy, but it also doesn't address what happens when a user decides to Unpublish the node. Then the rule will Publish it again automatically. That could be problematic, and the way to address it is equally messy.

The Scheduler module handles all of this pretty nicely, which is why I ended up using it. I went back and forth between Schedule and Rules, and ended up decided that Scheduler would allow me to sleep better at night.