This is a short simple Javascript plugin that converts dates into words. Like this
Assuming today is October 24, 2015 at 13:30
October 24, 2015 at 12:30 => "about an hour ago"
October 24, 2015 at 13:25 => "5 minutes ago"
There's another similar plugin called jQuery timeago (which this plugin heavily uses code from), so why make a new one? Well that plugin wasn't working how I thought it should, and how its documentation said it would. I asked a question on GitHub and got a pretty dickish response from the creator. So I decided to make it work how I think it should. This plugin is also compatable with that one.
This plugin will work with or without jQuery and is called like this:
This plugin will convert any date that is parseable by Javascript's new Date() object or Unix timestamps.
Sat Oct 24 2015 13:39:01 GMT+0700 (ICT)
Sat Oct 24 2015 13:39:01 // This is not reccomended. It's best to include a timezone.
1445668757697
2015-10-24 13:39:44 +0700
2015-10-24T06:40:24.037Z
Put it in any element with any class (though the plugin will automatically look for .timeago if another selector is not given) and place the date in a title attribute
<div class="timeago" title="1445668757697">1445668757697</div>"
<div class="timeago" title="Sat Oct 24 2015 13:39:01">Sat Oct 24 2015 13:39:01</div>"
Call it like this WITH jQuery:
$(".timeago").timeago();
Call it like this WITHOUT jQuery:
TimeAgo();
You can also pass in a different selector class or ID if you don't want to use .timeago
TimeAgo("#different_id");
###Updating the time###
The plugin will automatically recall itself every minute so the display will update itself.
####DISCLAIMER:####
This plugin will not handle timezone conversions. If you feed it a bare date like this "Sat, 24 Oct 2015 06:58:17" It will assume it's the broswers local time. To combat this, if you can, add a timezone to your dates or use an ISO date. The following JS Date methods will work date.toISOString(), date.toUTCString(), date.toGMTString(). I'm sure your server side language has a function that can split out a similar format.
I can't promise the plugin will parse everything or work exactly as intended (let me know if it doesn't). But I can promise if you have an issue or a question I won't be a dick.
If you find any bugs or you want me to add features, open an Isuue, Pull Request, email, etc.