Rhythmyx 5.71
Would it be possible for us to modify an aging transition so that instead of moving an item to the published state based on the start date field or x number of minutes the transition occurs at a set time each day for all items in that state.
Our problem is that users just will not set the start date on items so I thought if they had an alternative state into which they could put x number of items such as ‘overnight publish’ then a modified aging transition could move those to the published state at say 10 pm each night. Then we would run an incremental at midnight each night (currently we publish from 8am to 6pm at 2 hourly intervals - unfortunately every day the 12 and 2pm runs go over 2 hours).
The easiest option for you as the Rhythmyx developer is to make the Start Date field required. In the Field Properties dialog for the Start Date field, change the value in the Occurence drop list to required. Based on the behavior you are observing in your users, however, they might be somewhat irked, especially when you first implement this change.
Another option would be to create an input transform that automatically generates a value in the Start Date field. This option would be more work for you, but less annoyance for your users.