[Request for Feedback] Ideas for addressing `isEditedPostDateFloating` to support custom statuses

[davisshaver]

Expected/Desired Behavior

Floating post dates should work on posts with custom post statuses.

Actual Behavior

Currently the block editor does not support floating post dates on posts with custom post statuses.

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

1. Create a new post
2. With or without Edit Flow enabled, the following JS command recreates the issue: wp.data.dispatch('core/editor').editPost({ status: 'pitch'});

The issue can also be recreated in a fresh WP/EditFlow installation by creating a new post. You should see the publish time is set immediately on opening the block editor.

Additional notes

The logic is contained here in isEditedPostDateFloating: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/blob/master/packages/editor/src/store/selectors.js#L735-L760

[GaryJones]

Closing as this is a core Gutenberg limitation that cannot be addressed in Edit Flow.

Investigation Findings

The isEditedPostDateFloating selector in Gutenberg is hardcoded to only return true for draft, auto-draft, and pending statuses:

if (status === 'draft' || status === 'auto-draft' || status === 'pending') {
    return date === modified || date === null;
}
return false;

There is no filter or property on register_post_status() that can influence this behavior.

Upstream Issues

This is part of a broader limitation with custom post statuses in Gutenberg:

• gutenberg#3144 - "Custom statuses are not supported" - open since 2017, marked as "Blocked"
• gutenberg#66199 - "Custom post statuses and Publish flow" - reports behavior got worse in WP 6.6

What Works

The actual publishing behavior has been fixed in #856 - when publishing from a custom status, the post date is correctly updated to the current time. The remaining issue is purely cosmetic: the UI shows a specific date instead of "Immediately" in the publish panel.

Path Forward

A proper fix requires changes to WordPress/Gutenberg core, either:

1. Adding a filter to isEditedPostDateFloating
2. Adding a floating_date property to register_post_status() that the selector respects

If someone wants to pursue this, contributing upstream to Gutenberg would be the appropriate path.