5.3.3.4. Date Section

This section contains settings that are used to retrieve the publish date [3] of the post from the target web page.

Tip

You can test if the dates are found and parsed properly by using Tester Page.

5.3.3.4.1. Post Date Selectors

CSS selectors that match the post date in the source code of the target post page. This is a type of Selector and Attribute Setting. If you enter more than one selector, the first match will be used.

Found date will be parsed by strtotime function. So, if the date found by the selectors cannot be parsed properly, you need to use find-replace options, such as Find and replace in dates or Find-Replace Tab of Options Box, to change the date into a suitable format. Generally, sites show the date via meta tags [1] [2] in a format like 2017-02-27T05:00:17-05:00. This format will be parsed without any issues. You can also visit Supported Date and Time Formats page of PHP to learn more.

5.3.3.4.2. Test Date

A date to be used to perform tests using button of Find and replace in dates setting.

5.3.3.4.3. Find and replace in dates

This is a type of Find and Replace Setting. Enter the rules that will turn the date retrieved from the target site into a format that can be parsed by strtotime function. button will use the value defined in Test Date as subject when performing the tests.

5.3.3.4.4. Minutes that should be added to the final date

How many minutes should be added to the final publish date of the post. If the final date becomes greater than now, the post will be scheduled. If you write a negative number, it will be subtracted from the date. Write comma-separated numbers to randomize.

Tip

You can write the same number multiple times to increase its chance to be selected.

This setting will be applied even if you do not supply any date selectors. Since the current date will be used when there is no date found by the selectors defined in Post Date Selectors, the additions will be made to the current date in case there is no date.

The following table shows a few examples.

Value	Meaning
10	Add 10 minutes to the final date. Since there are no other values, this value will always be used. In other words, 10 minutes will be added to the dates no matter what.
10, -10	Add or subtract 10 minutes to/from the final date. Some dates will be added 10 minutes, while some dates will be subtracted 10 minutes. The probability of addition or subtraction is 50%.
10, 10, 10, -10	Add or subtract 10 minutes to/from the final date. Some dates will be added 10 minutes, while some dates will be subtracted 10 minutes. However, addition case is more likely. While the probability of subtracting 10 minutes is 25%, that of adding 10 minutes is 75%.

Footnotes

[1]	https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_meta.asp

[2]	https://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_meta_scheme.asp

[3]	See Publish Box section of Writing Posts page at WordPress