Move to trash events older than

hey, I′m here for the same thing!! I hope we can get an answer!

Hi @mhugg1961 and @cenzi

Currently, this is not possible out of the box or with snippets.

Achieving something like this would require the modification of some core files, which modifications would be lost after a plugin update.

The query needs to be changed here:
wp-content/plugins/the-events-calendar/src/Tribe/Event_Cleaner_Scheduler.php

In this function select_events_to_purge() look for this line:
AND t2.meta_value <= DATE_SUB( CURDATE(), INTERVAL %d MONTH )

and change it to:
AND t2.meta_value <= DATE_SUB( CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL %d MINUTE )

With this change, the ‘1 month’ setting under “Events > Settings > General tab > Move to trash / Permanently delete events older than” will be taken as ‘1 minute’.
(3 months as 3 minutes, etc.)

Also you will need to change the related crons, as the trash and delete actions run on the cron.

• tribe_del_event_cron
• tribe_trash_event_cron

Currently, these are set to run once per day. I would change them to run every 15 minutes. A plugin like WP Crontrol can help you do that.

I would not set it to more often than 15 minutes, unless you have a lot of events to get rid of and a lot of visitors.
With the 15-minute setting, the old events will be trashed or deleted every 15 minutes.

Again, warning, if you make that change in the core file, the change will be lost after a plugin update and you will need to re-do it again.

I also strongly recommend a full backup before attempting this.

If this is something you would like to see as a feature, then I would recommend you to add it to our idea board, or upvote it if it’s already there.

Let me know if this helps.

Cheers,
Andras

Hi again @cenzi and @mhugg1961

I was digging around a bit and I actually found a way to do this without needing to modify the core files. The is a filter that can be used for this.

Here is the code you need to put in your funcitions.php file:

add_filter( 'tribe_events_delete_old_events_sql', 'immediate_cleanup_query' );

function immediate_cleanup_query( $sql ) {
	global $wpdb;

	$posts_with_parents_sql = "
			SELECT DISTINCT post_parent
			FROM {$wpdb->posts}
			WHERE
				post_type= '$event_post_type'
				AND post_parent <> 0
		";

	$sql = "
			SELECT post_id
			FROM {$wpdb->posts} AS t1
			INNER JOIN {$wpdb->postmeta} AS t2 ON t1.ID = t2.post_id
			WHERE
				t1.post_type = %s
				AND t2.meta_key = '_EventEndDate'
				AND t2.meta_value <= DATE_SUB( CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL %d MINUTE )
				AND t2.meta_value != 0
				AND t2.meta_value != ''
				AND t2.meta_value IS NOT NULL
				AND t1.post_parent = 0
				AND t1.ID NOT IN ( $posts_with_parents_sql )
		";

	return $sql;
}

This will change the values in the setting dropdowns from months to minutes.
So if you have “Trash events older than 1 month” selected, that will actually mean “Trash events older than 1 minute”. Same for permanently deleting events.

Note: the texts in the dropdown will not change.

There is one thing left to do.
As I mentioned, this functionality runs on a cron that gets triggered once per day.

If you install WP Crontrol then you can change that to run every 15 minutes.
Go to Tools > Cron Events.
Look for these two crons:

• tribe_del_event_cron
• tribe_trash_event_cron

Edit them and set the recurrence to ‘Every 15 minutes’.

You could set it to ‘Every minute’, but that would put superfluous load on your site.

Cheers,
Andras

Good news @cenzi @mhugg1961

I got really interested, so I created a free extension.
Remove any code that I shared before and install this.
https://theeventscalendar.com/extensions/remove-past-events/

Would love to hear your feedback.

Andras

okay, awesome, you sir are amazing!! I’ll try this later tonight.

@cenzi @mhugg1961
Let me know how it worked out!

A.

Hi there!

This thread has been inactive for a while so I’ll be marking it as Resolved.

Please feel free to open a new thread if any other questions come up and we’d be happy to help.

Best regards,

Marho