Show text block between specified dates

Question

How can I display a text block between two dates? I would like to display a remark on the homepage and possibly on product detail pages, but only for one week in August. I could edit the homepage manually, but if I can set it now and if it works automatically that would be great. Is there a way to do this in magento or do I need a module for it?

Answer 1

Option 1 - cleanest.
Create a static block with the id home_temporary_block (or any other name). Create a new theme that has in the local.xml layout file this:

<cms_index_index> <!-- layout handle for homepage-->
    <reference name="content">
        <block type="cms/block" name="cms_hp_block" before="-">
                <action method="setBlockId"><block_id>home_temporary_block</block_id></action>
            </block> 
    </reference>
</cms_index_index>

Then edit the homepage in CMS->Pages and under the tab Design section Custom Design set your start date, end date and new theme for fields Custom Design From, Custom Design To and Custom Theme.
Option 2 - not that clean, but still....
An other option would be to create a template file that displays a static block, but before displaying it, check if the current date is in the specified interval.
So add this to the homepage

{{block type="core/template" template="custom/template.phtml"}}

In custom/template.phtml add this code:

<?php 
$now = Mage::getModel('core/date')->gmtDate('U');
$start = Mage::getModel('core/date')->gmtDate('U', mktime(0, 0, 0, 8, 1, 2013));//august 1st 2013
$end = Mage::getModel('core/date')->gmtDate('U', mktime(0, 0, 0, 8, 15, 2013));//august 15th 2013
if ($now >= $start && $now <= $end){//if between selected dates
    //load the block
    $block = Mage::app()->getLayout()->createBlock('cms/block')->setBlockId('home_temporary_block');
    //display the block
    echo $block->toHtml();
}

Option 3 - kind of ugly. You can create a static block and show it on homepage, and have a cron that enables/disables it at a specified date.