SSP — Republish Old Posts Pro (Docs)

SSP Documentation

Republish Old Posts Pro

Admin Screens

The plugin adds a top-level menu item Republish Old Posts Pro (update icon) with three tabs:

General Tab

Enable/disable general republishing schedule
Choose content type (Posts or WooCommerce Products)
Set republish interval (minutes, hours, days, weeks, months)
Selection method (random from oldest pool or oldest first)
Category filtering for posts or product categories
Manual “Run Once Now” button

Marked Pool Tab

Enable priority queue with separate schedule
Choose content type (Posts or Products)
Configure independent interval and selection method
Set cooldown period (hours, days, weeks, months, years)
Auto-include entire categories
Hide/show row actions in post lists
View current priority queue with source tracking

Activity / Logs Tab

Enable/disable activity logging
View up to 200 most recent republished items
Track post type, original date, last republished timestamp
See which items are in priority queue
Full-width sortable table display

Navigation

Menu Location	Republish Old Posts Pro (update icon) in the WP admin sidebar at priority 80
Permissions	Only users with `manage_options` capability can access settings
Settings Page	admin.php?page=ssp-republish-posts

How It Works

Republish Old Posts Pro uses WordPress’s built-in WP-Cron system to automatically refresh old content by updating publication dates:

Activation: Default settings are created and WP-Cron events are scheduled based on configured intervals
Scheduled Execution: At each interval tick, the plugin selects a candidate post/product according to current rules
Date Update: Selected item’s post_date and post_date_gmt are updated to current time
Metadata Tracking: Item receives _ssp_last_republished meta timestamp for tracking and cooldown
Cache Clearing: Post cache is cleared to ensure fresh data throughout WordPress

Two Independent Pools

General Pool

Category-filtered automatic republishing
Runs on its own independent schedule
Can be enabled/disabled separately
Best for broad content refresh strategies

Priority Queue (Marked Pool)

Manually selected high-priority items
Separate schedule from general pool
Cooldown protection prevents over-republishing
Ideal for evergreen or seasonal content

SEO Impact: Republishing changes the post’s publish date, affecting archive ordering and “freshness” signals. This is intentional and helps surface evergreen content to both users and search engines.

Selection Methods

Oldest First	Always selects the chronologically oldest eligible item based on original publish date
Random from Oldest Pool	Builds a pool of N oldest items (configurable size), then randomly selects one from that pool

WooCommerce Support

Pro version includes full support for republishing WooCommerce products alongside regular posts:

Features

Content Type Selection: Choose between Posts or WooCommerce Products in both General and Marked Pool tabs
Product Categories: Filter by product categories (product_cat taxonomy) when products are selected
Independent Configuration: General and Marked pools can republish different content types simultaneously
Product Metabox: Priority queue checkbox appears in product edit screens
Bulk Actions: Mark/unmark products for priority queue from product list
Activity Tracking: Logs show “Product” vs “Post” type labels

Requirements

WooCommerce Required: Product republishing requires WooCommerce to be installed and activated. If WooCommerce is not active, the product selection option is disabled with a clear notice explaining the requirement.

Use Cases

Seasonal Products: Keep seasonal items appearing fresh year after year
Evergreen Products: Maintain visibility for best-sellers and core catalog items
Product Launch Cycles: Re-promote products on a schedule without manual intervention
Category Refresh: Automatically rotate through entire product categories

Post Type	`product`
Taxonomy	`product_cat`
Metabox Location	Product edit screen sidebar
List Column	Added to Products list (Last Republished)
Row Actions	Mark Priority / Unmark (if not hidden in settings)

Scheduling & Selection

Interval Configuration

Both General and Marked pools support flexible interval scheduling:

Minutes	1-59 minutes (useful for high-frequency testing or very active sites)
Hours	1-23 hours (default: General = 2 hours, Marked = 4 hours)
Days	1+ days (recommended for most sites)
Weeks	1+ weeks (for slow rotation strategies)
Months	1+ months (treated as 30 days internally)

Pro Feature: Minutes and hours intervals are only available in the Pro version. This allows high-frequency republishing for active blogs and e-commerce sites.

WP-Cron Schedules

The plugin registers custom WP-Cron schedules:

ssp_custom_interval_general – General pool schedule
ssp_custom_interval_marked – Marked pool schedule

When settings are saved, existing scheduled events are cleared and new ones are created to reflect the updated intervals.

General Pool Candidate Rules

All published items of selected content type (posts or products)
Filtered by selected categories if any are chosen
Sticky posts are ignored (ignore_sticky_posts=true)
Ordered by original publish date ascending (oldest first)
No cooldown enforcement

Priority Queue Candidate Rules

Union of two sources:
- Items with _ssp_mark_for_republish=1 meta flag
- All items in auto-include categories
Filtered by content type (posts or products)
Cooldown period enforced (if configured > 0)
Ordered by original publish date
Pool size and selection method applied

Selection Mode Details

Random from Oldest Pool

Fetches N oldest eligible items (pool size)
Randomly selects one from that pool
Provides variety while prioritizing old content
Default pool size: General=50, Marked=25

Oldest First

Deterministically selects the single oldest item
Ensures systematic rotation through all content
Predictable republishing order
Best for complete catalog coverage

Priority Queue (Marked Pool)

The priority queue is a separate republishing system for high-value content that needs more frequent or controlled republishing:

Two Ways to Add Items

Manual Marking

Check “Add to priority queue” in post/product sidebar metabox
Use “Mark as Priority” bulk action in lists
Click “Mark Priority” row action (if enabled)
Sets _ssp_mark_for_republish=1 meta

Auto-Include Categories

Select categories in Marked Pool settings
ALL items in those categories are automatically included
No per-item marking required
Ideal for entire content sections

Cooldown Protection

Prevents over-republishing the same item:

Purpose	Minimum time that must pass before the same item can be republished again
Units	Hours, days, weeks, months (30 days), years (365 days)
Default	24 hours
Disable	Set value to 0 for no cooldown
Tracking	Based on `_ssp_last_republished` timestamp meta

Pro Feature: Cooldown protection with granular time units (including hours and years) is exclusive to Pro.

Current Queue Display

The Marked Pool tab shows a full-width table of all items currently in the priority queue:

Title: Edit link to the item
Original Date: When the item was first published
Last Republished: Most recent republish timestamp (or “Never”)
Source: “Marked” (manual) or “Category” (auto-included)
Actions: “Unmark” button for manually marked items

Row Action Visibility

The “Mark Priority” / “Unmark” quick actions in post/product lists can be hidden if you want to prevent casual toggling by editors. Enable the checkbox in settings to remove these row actions while keeping metabox and bulk action access.

Union Logic

The priority queue uses a union of marked items and category items, meaning:

An item can be in the queue via marking, category membership, or both
Unmarking an item that’s in an auto-include category keeps it in the queue
Removing category from auto-include removes those items unless also manually marked
Duplicates are automatically eliminated in the union

Per-Post Controls

The plugin adds several UI elements to post and product edit screens and lists:

Metabox (Sidebar)

Location: Post/Product edit screen sidebar, “Republish Priority” box

Checkbox: “Add to priority queue” – toggles _ssp_mark_for_republish meta
Timestamp Display: Shows last republished date/time or “Never”
Nonce Protection: Saves securely via ssp_republish_post_box nonce
Permission Check: Only users with edit_post capability can save

List Column

Added to both Posts and Products admin lists after the Title column:

Column Label	“Last Republished”
Content	Formatted date/time using site’s date/time format settings, or “Never”
Data Source	`_ssp_last_republished` post meta (Unix timestamp)

Row Actions

Quick links appear in the post/product list hover actions (unless hidden in settings):

“Mark Priority”: Shown when item is not marked, sets flag to 1
“Unmark”: Shown when item is marked, deletes the meta flag
Security: Nonce-protected with ssp_toggle_mark_{post_id}
URL Parameters: ssp_toggle_mark and ssp_mark_value

Bulk Actions

Available in the post/product list bulk action dropdown:

Mark as Priority	Sets `_ssp_mark_for_republish=1` on all selected items
Unmark Priority	Deletes `_ssp_mark_for_republish` meta from all selected items

Success notices show the number of items affected, with proper singular/plural handling.

Activity & Logs

The Activity / Logs tab provides visibility into republishing history:

Enable/Disable Logging

Checkbox option: “Enable Activity Logs” – controls visibility of the logs table. When disabled, the table is hidden and a message is shown. Setting is stored in ssp_activity_enabled option (default: enabled).

Log Display

Full-width striped table showing up to 200 most recently republished items:

Query	Posts and products with `_ssp_last_republished` meta, ordered by that meta value (newest first)
Limit	200 items maximum
Status Filter	Only published items shown

Table Columns

Title: Linked to edit screen
Type: “Post” or “Product” label based on post type
Original Date: Original publish date (unchanged by republishing)
Last Republished: Formatted timestamp from meta, or “Never”
Marked?: “Yes” if _ssp_mark_for_republish=1, otherwise “No”

Note: The log is informational only and does not affect scheduling. It shows the last 200 items regardless of which pool (general or marked) republished them.

Empty State

When no items have been republished yet, a centered message displays: “Nothing republished yet.”

Troubleshooting

No items are being republished automatically

Verify the relevant pool (General or Marked) is enabled on its tab
Check that your interval value and unit are saved correctly
Confirm categories are selected (if you want category filtering) and contain published items
Test with “Run Once Now” button to isolate WP-Cron from selection logic
On low-traffic sites, WP-Cron may not fire regularly – consider triggering wp-cron.php via system cron or external service
Check for plugin conflicts that might clear scheduled events

Priority queue won’t pick any items

Ensure at least one item is explicitly marked OR a category is selected in “Auto-Include Categories”
Check if cooldown period is excluding recently republished items – try setting to 0 temporarily
Verify the correct content type (Posts vs Products) is selected
Look at the “Current Priority Queue” table on the Marked Pool tab to confirm items are showing
Test with “Run Once Now” on Marked Pool tab

WooCommerce products option is grayed out

The product option requires WooCommerce to be installed and activated. Install WooCommerce from the WordPress plugin repository, activate it, then return to settings to enable product republishing.

List column shows “Never” but I republished manually

The “Last Republished” column reflects only this plugin’s automatic republishing via the _ssp_last_republished meta timestamp. Manual edits or republishing through other methods won’t update this value. The plugin only tracks its own automated republishes.

Manual “Run Once Now” doesn’t seem to work

Check the Activity / Logs tab to confirm if an item was actually republished
With “Oldest first” mode and specific filters, it may pick the same item multiple times legitimately
If your candidate set is empty due to filters, no action will occur – verify category selections
For marked pool, verify at least one item is in the queue and eligible (not in cooldown)

Changed intervals but still runs at old schedule

Saving settings clears and reschedules events, but a previously queued cron job might still be close to firing. Wait for one complete cycle of the old interval, or use a cron manager plugin to manually clear events and resave settings. The next execution will use the new schedule.

Cooldown not working as expected

Cooldown only applies to the Marked Pool, not General pool
Cooldown is based on _ssp_last_republished timestamp – if this meta doesn’t exist, the item is considered eligible
Current time is compared to (last republish time + cooldown seconds)
Setting cooldown to 0 disables it completely
Check the Activity / Logs tab to see actual last republish times

Bulk action notices not appearing

Bulk action success notices rely on query parameters ssp_bulk_marked or ssp_bulk_unmarked. If you’re redirected to a different page or query parameters are stripped by another plugin, notices won’t show. Check the post/product metabox to confirm the marking actually worked.

Row actions still showing after hiding them

The “Hide quick mark/unmark links” option only affects the Posts and Products list tables. The metabox on edit screens and bulk actions remain available. If row actions are still showing, verify you saved the Marked Pool settings with the checkbox enabled.

Category filter not working for products

When “WooCommerce Products” is selected as content type, the plugin uses product_cat taxonomy instead of regular category. Make sure you’re selecting product categories, not post categories. The category selector automatically switches based on content type.

Test / Verification

Follow these steps to verify the plugin is working correctly:

General Pool Test

Create 3-5 test posts with different publish dates in a category like “Test Evergreen”
Go to General tab and enable republishing
Set interval to “Every 5 minutes” for testing
Choose “Random (from oldest pool)” with pool size 3
Select only the “Test Evergreen” category
Click Save Settings
Click Run Once Now
Visit Posts list and confirm one post’s date changed to now
Check “Last Republished” column shows current timestamp
Go to Activity / Logs tab and verify the entry appears

Priority Queue Test

Pick one of your test posts and edit it
In the “Republish Priority” metabox, check “Add to priority queue”
Save the post
Go to Marked Pool tab and enable priority queue
Set interval to “Every 5 minutes”
Choose “Oldest first” selection method
Set cooldown to 0 for testing
Click Save Settings
Verify your marked post appears in “Current Priority Queue” table
Click Run Once Now
Confirm the marked post was republished (check date and logs)

WooCommerce Product Test

(Requires WooCommerce installed and activated)

Create 2-3 test products in a product category
Go to General tab
Change Content Type to “WooCommerce Products”
Select your test product category
Click Run Once Now
Check Products list – one product date should update
Verify “Last Republished” column appears and shows timestamp

Cooldown Test

Mark a post for priority queue
Run marked pool once now (cooldown = 0)
Change cooldown to “24 hours”
Try running again immediately
Verify the same post is NOT republished (it’s in cooldown)
Check logs – no new entry should appear

Bulk Action Test

Go to Posts or Products list
Select 2-3 items using checkboxes
Choose “Mark as Priority” from Bulk Actions dropdown
Click Apply
Verify success notice appears with count
Go to Marked Pool tab and confirm all appear in queue
Return to list, select same items, use “Unmark Priority”
Verify they’re removed from queue

Pro Tip: Use short intervals (5-10 minutes) during testing, then increase to realistic values (hours/days) for production use. Remember to trigger WP-Cron manually on low-traffic test sites.