Programmatically Adding a Publish On value during node creation

To clarify, perhaps:
Each item in $forms is then passed to the Target site via xmlrpc(), the receiving site then performs

$node = (object) NULL;
$node->type = $form['type'];
drupal_form_submit($form_id, $form_state, (object)$node);

The $form_id (in a specific case it is "article_node_form") and $form_state being derived from what is passed in with $forms.

I'm a bit stuck with including Scheduler publish dates, but every other aspect of publishing is working so I may just add a field to the article type for the publishing date and use Rules.

Hi Jonathan,

I ended up using a Date field and Rules to accomplish what I needed at the moment, but I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

1.) Yes, I was trying to use Scheduler on the Target site, but the "published" status on the Management site is inconsequential and could always be published

2.) Yes, no publish_on date was being stored when and article was published/pushed from the Management site to the Target site. There didn't seem to be any errors in the php logs or site logs.

3.) Yes, "we" try to be as drupal-ish as possible, so $form and $form_state are what you would expect.

4.) Great eye. The Management site can "bulk-publish" articles to the Target site. $forms is just a collection of individual $form elements (one per article). The Target site then handles each $form as it's own item to create a node from..

5.) I've attached some files. sample_form.txt is the $form that is passed via xml (one of potentially multiple items in $forms). form.txt and form_state.txt is what is passed to drupal_form_submit. I've also attached the function that processes each $form item.

As I mentioned, I found a work-around using a Date field and Rules. This may be sort of an edge case, but thanks for your time!
N