Start and End Dates

Sales and Specials

Both Specials and Sales have configurable start and end dates, which means you don’t have to turn them off or on by hand if you don’t want to.

Here’s how they work:

• On every page load (admin or storefront), the current date is determined using the cart’s timezone.
• Any currently disabled Sales or Specials are enabled if they have:
  • they have a start date which is less than or equal to the current date (or start date not set),
  • they have an end date which is greater than the current date (or end date not set)
• Any currently enabled Sales or Specials are disabled if:
  • the current date is less than the start date (if start date set)
• Any currently enabled Sales or Specials are disabled if:
  • the current date is greater than or equal to the end date (if the end date is set).
  • the current date is less than the start date (if the end date is set).

So a sale with a start date of 01/27/2021 and an end date of 01/28/2021 would run from only on 01/27/2021. As soon as the date changed, the sale would end. (The actual database update ending the sale would occur on the first page load after 01/28/2021 began.)

Featured Products

Featured Products also have a start and end date, and work the same way Sales and Specials do, as described above.

Upcoming Products

Since Zen Cart 1.5.7, it has been possible to automatically enable any disabled Upcoming Product on its available date, using the enable disabled product by available date feature.