Textpattern has a nifty little feature which allows one to set an expiration date on an article. Very nice for sites which have time-sensitive material.

However, it can take a little tweaking to get the output on your site just the way you want it. Following are a couple of methods you can try for yourself.

Example 1: Display articles which have expired

<txp:variable name="hasarticles" value='<txp:article_custom section="your-section" expired="1" />' />
<txp:if_variable name="hasarticles" value="">
	<div class="row">
		<div class="small-12 columns">
			<div class="panel">
				<p>Sorry! we don't have any expired articles!</p>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
<txp:else />
	<txp:article>
	<div class="row">
		<div class="small-12 columns">
		<txp:if_expired>
			<h2><txp:title /></h2>
			<p>Some expired article description...</p>
		<txp:else />
			<h2><txp:permlink><txp:title /></txp:permlink></h2>
			<p><txp:excerpt /></p>
		</txp:if_expired>
		</div>
	</div>
	</txp:article>	
</txp:if_variable>

What the above code does is:

1. Set a variable to the value of <txp:article_custom section="your-section" expired="1" />
2. The attribute expired="1" selects only articles which have expired
3. Display a message if there are no expired articles
4. If there are expired articles, then use the txp:if_expired> tag to display some custom content

Example 2: Display articles which have NOT expired

<txp:variable name="hasarticles" value='<txp:article_custom section="your-section" expired="0" />' />
<txp:if_variable name="hasarticles" value="">
	<div class="row">
		<div class="small-12 columns">
			<div class="panel">
				<p>Sorry! we don't have anything to show you.</p>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
<txp:else />
	<txp:article>
	<div class="row">
		<div class="small-12 columns">
		<txp:if_expired>
		<txp:else />
			<h2><txp:permlink><txp:title /></txp:permlink></h2>
			<p><txp:excerpt /></p>
		</txp:if_expired>
		</div>
	</div>
	</txp:article>	
</txp:if_variable>

What the above code does is:

1. Set a variable to the value of <txp:article_custom section="your-section" expired="0" />
2. The attribute expired="0" selects only articles which have NOT expired
3. Display a message if there are no articles retrieved in the query
4. Display some custom content for the non-expired articles

Don’t forget your expired articles preference…

By default, Textpattern does not publish expired articles. That means if an article you published a long time ago with a URL is clicked by a visitor, Textpattern will display a 410 error notice.

From the Publish expired articles help page:

Preferences: Publish expired articles?

When set to ‘Yes’, expired articles will continue to show on your site after their expiry date has elapsed. You can use <txp:if_expired /> to show alternate content or markup for expired articles.

When set to ‘No’, expired articles will be removed from the public site and return a “410 Gone” HTTP status instead. Visitors to an expired article will be shown a custom page template named ‘error_410’ if it’s present.

The default setting is ‘No’.

Play around with the settings and above code examples and hopefully you will get close to your desired result!