Making pages un-Publishable [duplicate]

Question

Is there a way to make particular pages not publishable? I know structure groups have that property but if we have to make few pages in a structure group not publishable.

Answer 1

To make a specific Page not publishable you will have to create either an event handler or a custom resolver. Personally I would say an event handler would be the best fit for this.

Here is an example event handler I wrote a while ago to prevent publishing pages that contained the text "do not publish" in the title. This code is using the SDL Tridion 2011 style .Net event system, for your R5.3 system you would have to recreate it using the VB6 event system (or upgrade, which would be a better option, considering you are on an unsupported release).

using System;
using Tridion.ContentManager.CommunicationManagement;
using Tridion.ContentManager.Extensibility;
using Tridion.ContentManager.Extensibility.Events;
using Tridion.ContentManager.Publishing;
using Tridion.Localization;

namespace Example
{
    [TcmExtension("ExampleEventHandlerExtension")]
    public class EventHandler : TcmExtension
    {
        public EventHandler()
        {
            EventSystem.Subscribe<Page, PublishOrUnPublishEventArgs>(PagePublishOrUnpublishAction, EventPhases.Initiated);
        }

        private static void PagePublishOrUnpublishAction(Page page, PublishOrUnPublishEventArgs args, EventPhases phase)
        {
            if (page.Title.ToLower().Contains("do not publish"))
            {
                throw new PublisherException(new LocalizableMessage(Properties.Resources.ResourceManager, "DoNotPublishError", new object[] {page}));
            }
        }
    }
}

Instead of checking on a certain string in the title, you could perhaps add a metadata Schema with a field which has a Publishable property. Then in the event handler you check if that is set (would only work for people who cannot edit that Page, else they can simply remove the metadata property).

Answer 2

You have stated that you are aware of this feature with regard to Structure Groups, but have you considered simply cutting and pasting the relevant pages to a structure group where publishing is disabled? This would have an added benefit of making it very clear to everyone which pages were expected to publish and which weren't.

Answer 3

To achieve this Use-Case, you need to create a Disable Publishing Template as I mentioned in the How to make page not publishable? answer.

For your quick reference, below are the

Steps to Create a "Disable Publishing" template:

1. Get the user specific message from the Generic component
2. Throw an exception with the "User Specific Message"
3. Message should state that publishing is disabled and why.