How do I use rules scheduler to disable and enable a commerce product entity based on certain date fields?

Question

I have a commerce product type (entity not display node) with two date fields (enable_date and disable_date). What are the steps to create a rule/component and use rules scheduler to schedule these to disable and enable these products, based on the value of these two fields?

The use case is that I have an event node (product display) that needs to always be viewable but the attached registration (product entity) needs to be disabled on a specific day/time. i.e. Registration is now closed, but users can still see the event info, like location, map etc. Using rules scheduler I am sure I can do this. I have tried with mixed results but I am still learning the rules module. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

First create a Rules component for setting the status of a product.

1. Go to Configuration -> Workflow -> Rules -> Components -> Add new component.
2. Create an Action set.
3. Give the component a suitable name, such as Set product status.
4. Create a parameter of type Commerce Product, label Product, machine name product; and another of type Truth value, label Status, machine name status.
5. Add action: Set a data value
6. For Data, use the Data selector to select the product parameter's status (product:status).
7. For Value, use the Data selector to to select the status parameter (status).
8. Save

You now have a component that can be scheduled. Next you need to trigger the creation of the scheduled action. I'm going to describe the process for enabling the product; you should be able to create another rule for disabling easily enough following the same method.

1. Go to Configuration -> Workflow -> Rules -> Add new rule
2. Choose the triggers After saving a new commerce product and After updating an existing commerce product.
3. Add the condition Entity has field.
4. For Entity, use the Data selector to choose commerce-product as the entity.
5. For Field, use the dropdown to select your start date field.
6. Add condition Data value is empty.
7. For Data to check, use the Data selector to choose the start date field.
8. Check the Negate checkbox (we only want to proceed if the field is not empty)
9. Add another condition Data comparison and select the start date field is greater than site:current-date
10. Add an action Schedule component evaluation.
11. For Component, choose the component you created earlier.
12. For Scheduled evaluation date, use the Data selector to get the start date.
13. For Identifier, choose something like Enable product [commerce-product:product-id]
14. For Status check the box.
15. For Product use the Data selector to choose commerce-product.

Then in order to remove a scheduled action if the date's removed from the field:

1. Follow steps 1-7 (but not 8!) immediately above to create a new rule.
2. Add an action Delete scheduled tasks.
3. For Component, choose the component you created earlier.
4. For Identifer, use the same string you used before.

And another rule to delete the scheduled action when the product's deleted would be good too.

I quickly gave that a go and it seems to work for me. Let me know if you have any problems.

Answer 2

Here is something I have done in the past and I think will help you retrieve your product ids without having to loop through every single product.

You can use VBO to load a list of entity IDs to your view that you can loop through. You can read how to do that here: http://nodeone.se/sv/node/777

This will allow you to create two views to return the entity ids for your products enabling today and disabling today.

Then create your RULE to fire during cron or something, as long as its once a day.

Add your Action to load a list of entity objects through a VBO display. Add a loop based on that loop parameter List. It defaults to "entity_list" Add an Action for the Loop to iterate over your entity list which is your product entity to either disable or enable the product. Select Data -> Set a value

Once you are in the set a value part you will see your "entity-list" data selector pop up and you can set the value for enabling or disabling to w/e you need it to be.

Hopefully this will get you where you need to be, let me know if you get stuck.

Just a slight followup, you can add both VBO views to the single rule. One VBO display pulls all the products that need to be enabled today that you loop through, and then you can create another action to pull the VBO display that turns off the products for today. So this will run every day turning on/off your products and you never have to worry about scheduling anything.

Answer 3

I have also found a good answer of related to this question at Drupal groups. This is really nice discussion about creating rule in Drupal 7. Get the rest of material at https://groups.drupal.org/node/240678 .