jQuery Time ago from a timestamp?
Solution 1
I had the same problem. I'm using Unix timestamps which are generated from PHP, so I decided to do a quick hack and extend the parsing function of jQuery timeago to handle timestamps additionally. Works like a charm. Simply look for the Parse function at around line 79 in the jquery.timeago.js file, and replace with the following:
parse: function(iso8601) {
if ((iso8601 - 0) == iso8601 && iso8601.length > 0) { // Checks if iso8601 is a unix timestamp
var s = new Date(iso8601);
if (isNaN(s.getTime())) { // Checks if iso8601 is formatted in milliseconds
var s = new Date(iso8601 * 1000); //if not, add milliseconds
}
return s;
}
var s = $.trim(iso8601);
s = s.replace(/-/,"/").replace(/-/,"/");
s = s.replace(/T/," ").replace(/Z/," UTC");
s = s.replace(/([\+-]\d\d)\:?(\d\d)/," $1$2"); // -04:00 -> -0400
return new Date(s);
},
Solution 2
Here is something in JavaScript using nothing but Unix timestamps.
var d1;
var d2;
d1 = (new Date()).getTime(); setTimeout( function() { d2 = (new Date()).getTime(); }, 5000 );
var secondsElapsed = (d2 - d1) / 1000;
secondsElapsed; // 5 seconds
Now, you can either store a timestamp in a JavaScript variable in the same scope as your "timeago" function, or your can store it in an HTML element. As mentioned, the time
element is an HTML 5 element. You could do something like:
<p class="timestamp" style="display: none;">123456</p>
Then maybe you have a comment item like:
<div class="comment">
<p>Lorem ipsum et dolor...</p>
<p class="timestamp" style="display: none;">123456</p>
</div>
You could then get the timestamp for a comment by (assuming jQuery since you mentioned it):
var tstamps = $('.comment .timestamp'); // array of comment timestamps
var timeago = ( (new Date()).getTime() - tstamps[0].html() ) / 1000;
It's a bit hackish, but it would work (if I did it right).
Solution 3
I like to use DateJS.com which is a date / time javascript library. You can do cool stuff like this (display 2 hours ago in a <span id='myfield'></span>
):
$('#myfield').text( (2).hours().ago().toString("HH:mm") );
JasonDavis
PHP/MySQL is my flavor of choice however more recently JavaScript is really becoming something I enjoy developing with! Writing code since 2000' Currently working heavily with SugarCRM + Launching my Web Dev company ApolloWebStudio.com "Premature optimization is not the root of all evil, lack of proper planning is the root of all evil." Twitter: @JasonDavisFL Work: Apollo Web Studio - https://www.apollowebstudio.com Some of my Web Dev skills, self rated... +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | Skill | Expert | Good | Intermediate | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | PHP | X | | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | MySQL | X | | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | Javascript | X | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | jQuery | X | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | CSS+CSS3 | X | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | HTML+HTML5 | X | | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | Photoshop | | X | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | Web Dev | X | | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | SugarCRM | X | | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | Magento | | X | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | WordPress | X | | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | SEO | X | | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ | Marketing | X | | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+ |Social Media| X | | | +------------+--------+------+--------------+
Updated on June 17, 2022Comments
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JasonDavis almost 2 years
Below is a really nice time ago plugin for jQuery, very similar to what they use here on SO. The problem for me is that it uses this to convert time.
<time class="timeago" datetime="2008-07-17T09:24:17Z">July 17, 2008</time>
That would be great except that I store time on my site in UTC timestamp and not as a formatted time, is there a way to convert something like this to use a timestamp? I know in PHP I could convert my timestamp to this format but it seems like overkill with converting a LOT of times on 1 page in PHP. I could be wrong, anyone else do this in jquery but from real timestamp?
Also I currently do this in PHP on a site to show "2 hours 4 minutes ago" but wou7ld it be better to use javascript for this instead of PHP?
/* * timeago: a jQuery plugin, version: 0.8.1 (2010-01-04) * @requires jQuery v1.2.3 or later * * Timeago is a jQuery plugin that makes it easy to support automatically * updating fuzzy timestamps (e.g. "4 minutes ago" or "about 1 day ago"). * * For usage and examples, visit: * http://timeago.yarp.com/ * Copyright (c) 2008-2010, Ryan McGeary (ryanonjavascript -[at]- mcgeary [*dot*] org) */ (function($) { $.timeago = function(timestamp) { if (timestamp instanceof Date) return inWords(timestamp); else if (typeof timestamp == "string") return inWords($.timeago.parse(timestamp)); else return inWords($.timeago.datetime(timestamp)); }; var $t = $.timeago; $.extend($.timeago, { settings: { refreshMillis: 60000, allowFuture: false, strings: { prefixAgo: null, prefixFromNow: null, suffixAgo: "ago", suffixFromNow: "from now", ago: null, // DEPRECATED, use suffixAgo fromNow: null, // DEPRECATED, use suffixFromNow seconds: "less than a minute", minute: "about a minute", minutes: "%d minutes", hour: "about an hour", hours: "about %d hours", day: "a day", days: "%d days", month: "about a month", months: "%d months", year: "about a year", years: "%d years" } }, inWords: function(distanceMillis) { var $l = this.settings.strings; var prefix = $l.prefixAgo; var suffix = $l.suffixAgo || $l.ago; if (this.settings.allowFuture) { if (distanceMillis < 0) { prefix = $l.prefixFromNow; suffix = $l.suffixFromNow || $l.fromNow; } distanceMillis = Math.abs(distanceMillis); } var seconds = distanceMillis / 1000; var minutes = seconds / 60; var hours = minutes / 60; var days = hours / 24; var years = days / 365; var words = seconds < 45 && substitute($l.seconds, Math.round(seconds)) || seconds < 90 && substitute($l.minute, 1) || minutes < 45 && substitute($l.minutes, Math.round(minutes)) || minutes < 90 && substitute($l.hour, 1) || hours < 24 && substitute($l.hours, Math.round(hours)) || hours < 48 && substitute($l.day, 1) || days < 30 && substitute($l.days, Math.floor(days)) || days < 60 && substitute($l.month, 1) || days < 365 && substitute($l.months, Math.floor(days / 30)) || years < 2 && substitute($l.year, 1) || substitute($l.years, Math.floor(years)); return $.trim([prefix, words, suffix].join(" ")); }, parse: function(iso8601) { var s = $.trim(iso8601); s = s.replace(/-/,"/").replace(/-/,"/"); s = s.replace(/T/," ").replace(/Z/," UTC"); s = s.replace(/([\+-]\d\d)\:?(\d\d)/," $1$2"); // -04:00 -> -0400 return new Date(s); }, datetime: function(elem) { // jQuery's `is()` doesn't play well with HTML5 in IE var isTime = $(elem).get(0).tagName.toLowerCase() == 'time'; // $(elem).is('time'); var iso8601 = isTime ? $(elem).attr('datetime') : $(elem).attr('title'); return $t.parse(iso8601); } }); $.fn.timeago = function() { var self = this; self.each(refresh); var $s = $t.settings; if ($s.refreshMillis > 0) { setInterval(function() { self.each(refresh); }, $s.refreshMillis); } return self; }; function refresh() { var data = prepareData(this); if (!isNaN(data.datetime)) { $(this).text(inWords(data.datetime)); } return this; } function prepareData(element) { element = $(element); if (element.data("timeago") === undefined) { element.data("timeago", { datetime: $t.datetime(element) }); var text = $.trim(element.text()); if (text.length > 0) element.attr("title", text); } return element.data("timeago"); } function inWords(date) { return $t.inWords(distance(date)); } function distance(date) { return (new Date().getTime() - date.getTime()); } function substitute(stringOrFunction, value) { var string = $.isFunction(stringOrFunction) ? stringOrFunction(value) : stringOrFunction; return string.replace(/%d/i, value); } // fix for IE6 suckage document.createElement('abbr'); document.createElement('time'); })(jQuery);