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remluben/nice-time
==================

A simple class for creating formatted output of time periods in facebook style

120PHP

Since Jul 4Pushed 12y ago1 watchersCompare

[ Source](https://github.com/remluben/NiceTime)[ Packagist](https://packagist.org/packages/remluben/nice-time)[ RSS](/packages/remluben-nice-time/feed)WikiDiscussions master Synced 1mo ago

READMEChangelogDependenciesVersions (1)Used By (0)

\#NiceTime

A simple class for creating formatted output of time periods in facebook style.

It is based on a simple function from one of the comments on the php.net PHP manual for the php time() function:

\##Installing

The project is available via [Composer](http://getcomposer.org) from .

Add the following lines to your *composer.json* file:

```
    {
        "require" : {
            "remluben/nice-time" : "dev-master"
        }
    }
```

\##Examples

Here is a list of possible ouput generated by objects of class *\\Remluben\\DateFormat\\NiceTime* without any customization

- 1 minute ago
- 3 minutes from now
- 5 days ago
- 1 day from now
- 6 months ago
- 1 year ago
- 2 decades ago

\##Customizing

After creating an \\Remluben\\DateFormat\\NiceTime object instance it is essential to modify all labels so they suite your custom needs

```
    $nt = new \Remluben\DateFormat\NiceTime();
```

\###bad date label

In the following example we show the bad date label's getter method and use it's setter method to set it to an empty string.

```
    // the default \Remluben\DateFormat\NiceTime bad date label is 'Bad date'
    $nt->getBadDateLabel();
    $nt->setBadDateLabel('');
```

Whenever we call the object's *format()* method with an invalid date string, it is going to return an empty string.

\###no date label

In the following example we show the no date label's getter method and use it's setter method to set it to an empty string.

```
    // the default NiceDate bad date label is 'No date provided'
    $nt->getNoDateLabel();
    $nt->setNoDateLabel('');
```

Whenever we call the object's *format()* method with an empty date string, it is going to return an empty string instead of it's default label 'No date provided'.

\###future tense

The future tense string is used to format future datetimes and is expected to contain *%s*sign where the time time value is going to be parsed into.

By default it's value is '%s from now', which seems quite okay in English. However for some languages the format of this string probably varies a lot from it's english version.

```
    // the default NiceDate future tense is '%s from now'
    $nt->getFutureTense();
    $nt->setFutureTense('in %s');
```

\###past tense

By default it's value is '%s ago'.

For further information see *future tense*

\###periods

With periods we probably come across the most difficult part of customization.

The default periods are:

- second/s
- minute/s
- hour/s
- week/s
- month/s
- year/s
- decade/s

Note, that the */* sign is used as separator for singular / plural words. This is essential, as we want to get formats as *1 day ago*, but also *2 days ago*.

**Example**

```
    $nt->setPeriods(array(
            'second/s',
            'minute/s',
            'hour/s',
            'week', // oh no we made a mistake here
            'month/s',
            'year/s',
            'decade/s',
    ));
    $date = date('Y-m-d', time() - 60 * 60 * 24 * 14); // two weeks ago
    // bad formatting as we missed the slash when configuring the periods above
    $nt->format($date); // => 2 week ago
```

\##Method chaining

As described within the section *customizing* above, there exists a lot of methods to customize a \\Remluben\\DateFormat\\NiceTime object's behaviour.

Method chaining allows you to do this in a nice and clean way:

```
    $nicetime = new \Remluben\DateFormat\NiceTime();
    // some funny customizing here - use method chaining
    $nicetime->setBadDateLabel('wtf')
             ->setNoDateLabel('lol this is no date')
             ->setFutureTense('%s from now - what else?')
             ->setPastTense('%s ago... puh');
    // now some output
    // 2 hours ago... puh
    echo $nicetime->format(date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time() - (2 * 60 * 60)));
    // 1 day from now - what else?
    echo $nicetime->format(date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time() + (24 * 60 * 60)));
```

###  Health Score

21

—

LowBetter than 18% of packages

Maintenance20

Infrequent updates — may be unmaintained

Popularity8

Limited adoption so far

Community7

Small or concentrated contributor base

Maturity41

Maturing project, gaining track record

 Bus Factor1

Top contributor holds 100% of commits — single point of failure

How is this calculated?**Maintenance (25%)** — Last commit recency, latest release date, and issue-to-star ratio. Uses a 2-year decay window.

**Popularity (30%)** — Total and monthly downloads, GitHub stars, and forks. Logarithmic scaling prevents top-heavy scores.

**Community (15%)** — Contributors, dependents, forks, watchers, and maintainers. Measures real ecosystem engagement.

**Maturity (30%)** — Project age, version count, PHP version support, and release stability.

### Community

Maintainers

![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/d0d5c989ae911407fec61d35acbda3866938e5b26d664b4a136e2fd683475366?d=identicon)[remluben](/maintainers/remluben)

---

Top Contributors

[![remluben](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2439260?v=4)](https://github.com/remluben "remluben (14 commits)")

---

Tags

phpphp-library

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