Calendar-based Publish / Unpublish Scheduler (Plugin)

[ahtesham-quraish]

RFC: Calendar-based Publish / Unpublish Scheduler Plugin

Summary

Introduce a Calendar Scheduler plugin that allows editors to visualize and manage scheduled publish and unpublish events for content.
The plugin provides a Gmail-like calendar UI inside the admin panel where scheduled events are color-coded, reschedulable (drag & drop), and editable via a modal.

---

Motivation

• Editors currently manage schedules per-document without a global overview.
• Difficult to audit what’s going live/expiring at scale.
• Calendar view improves discoverability, prevents mistakes, and matches workflows of modern CMS tools.
• Enhances editorial productivity.

---

Goals

• Centralized calendar UI for scheduled publishAt and unpublishAt events.
• Edit/reschedule via drag & drop and modal.
• Color-coded events by type/status.
• Secure API endpoints for fetching/updating schedules.
• Seamless integration with existing collections.

Non-goals

• Replacing the editor — this is for scheduling only.
• Real-time preview (future scope).
• Multi-tenant orchestration (out of scope v1).

Admin API

• GET /admin/schedules?start&end → return events in range
• PATCH /admin/schedules/:id → update event datetime
• DELETE /admin/schedules/:id → cancel event
• POST /admin/schedules/:id/execute → execute immediately

Admin UI

• Based on @fullcalendar/react.
• Month/week/day views.
• Event colors:
  • Publish = blue
  • Unpublish = red
  • Executed = faded / green
• Features:
  • Drag/drop to reschedule
  • Click → modal with details + actions (Edit, Execute, Delete, Open Editor)
  • Filters (collection, status, author)
  • Timezone support

---

Security

• API is admin-only.
• Ensure only authorized roles can reschedule or execute events.
• CSRF/bearer token protection (reuse existing auth system).

---

Migration / Compatibility

• If collections already have scheduling fields → reuse them.
• Migration script to add publishAt/unpublishAt if missing.
• Backfill status for older docs.

---

Metrics

• Number of scheduled events.
• Successful vs failed executions.
• Admin logs for troubleshooting.

---

Implementation Roadmap

• Scoping & design review with maintainers and editorial users.
• Data model: add scheduling fields to collections.
• Scheduling engine (MVP): implement cron scanner.
• Admin API: CRUD for schedules.
• Basic Admin UI: calendar page with event display.
• Drag & drop rescheduling: connect UI → API.
• Event modal: edit time, execute, open editor.
• Inline editor integration: date/time picker inside doc editor.
• Polish: colors, filters, responsive UI, accessibility.
• Tests & documentation.

---

Acceptance Criteria

• Admin can view all scheduled publish/unpublish events in calendar.
• Events are draggable → updates publishAt/unpublishAt in DB.
• Event modal allows editing details and executing now.
• Scheduler reliably executes events.
• Access control enforced.

---

Labels

• type:feature
• status:RFC
• plugin
• admin-ui
• scheduling

---

Next Steps

• Gather feedback on API shape and scheduling engine choice (cron vs queue).
• Confirm which collections require scheduling.
• Approve MVP scope.