Description

No answer:
How Can I Search Unpublished Content?
http://drupal.org/node/300803

Romania had a similar issue:
Can't access unpublished content that needs editing
http://drupal.ro/node/2394

(Off topic, but something of a solution to Romania's issue:)
Using Drupal's Workflow and Revision Moderation Modules Together
http://www.dave-cohen.com/node/1732

My own Worst. Answer. Ever.:

This is a proof of concept. Do not try this at home.

This is a hack to the core node module of Drupal 4.7. It is 4:30 a.m., I'm working with 4.7, and I'm hacking core. That should be all you need to know to start quietly backing away from your monitor.

That said, this patch at least identifies where the searching and indexing is restricted to published nodes... because it strips them out. Meaning that anonymous users, say, can see your unpublished content. Not good. But it would be fairly easy to create an "unpublished" tab for search that searches unpublished nodes, by reversing the logic.

If someone can search the core to see if this issue has come up I will try to get a patch into D7 that will index unpublished content and show it to searchers with proper permissions.

After applying this hack, I was able to give these instructions:

To view all the current content:

http://zingspace.org/auction2008/admin/node

You can filter by status "not published" and type "product"

You can select items, and then bulk publish using the "Update options" dropdown and Update button. (You can also select items you know don't apply this year and delete them to get them out of the way.)

You can also search for specific items by keyword here:

http://example.org/auction2008/search/node

In fact, you can just throw your words onto the end of the URL:

http://example.org/auction2008/search/node/glass+flowers

Or use the advanced search (expand the collapsed fieldset, or again straight through the URL...)

http://example.org/auction2008/search/node/glass+flowers+type:product

NOTE: When viewing an unpublished item, it will have a gray background.

Publishing everything would almost very likely result in items that we don't have this year being used.

As it is I'm going to have to write some custom code to remove bid histories for the re-used items.

To help you more we would need the specific example of what you're trying to do with what item.