DateTimePlugin

Display date and time with formatting options and localized dates

Introduction

This plugin is an extension of the TWiki variable GMTIME{"format"} (that only allows to show the current date and time).
DateTimePlugin lets you show any date and time before or after 'now', and it will return any part of a date such as the month name.

With DateTimePlugin you can write:
In five days will be: %DATETIME{incdays="5"}% and will have a always coherent phrase.

Date and time are displayed in the local time zone because of the way {DisplayTimeValues} configuration parameter is set. There is no way to specify a time zone in which date and time are displayed.

Syntax Rules

Use %DATETIME{}% to show the current date and time in default date format (as set in configure).

For more options use: %DATETIME{"format" <optional parameters>}%

Parameters

Parameter Description Example
"..." or format="..." Format of date string; see GMTIME{"format"} for formatting variables %DATETIME{"$wday"}%
date="..." Any date in one of the following formats:

Default TWiki format
    31 Dec 2001 - 23:59

TWiki format without time (defaults to 00:00)
    31 Dec 2001

Date seperated by '/', '.' or '-', time with '.' or ':'
Date and time separated by ' ', '.' and/or '-'
    2001/12/31 23:59:59
    2001.12.31.23.59.59
    2001/12/31 23:59
    2001.12.31.23.59
    2001-12-31 23:59
    2001-12-31 - 23:59

ISO format
    2001-12-31T23:59:59
ISO dates may have a timezone specifier, either Z or a signed difference in hh:mm format. For example:
    2001-12-31T23:59:59+01:00
    2001-12-31T23:59Z

In formats other than ISO, GMT time zone is always assumed. This is incosistent with the fact that date and time are displayed in the local time zone.

Timestamp (seconds from the epoch)
    1009843199

Note: will not handle dates before 1970!
%DATETIME{date="2001/12/31"}%
incdays="..." Increase the date by any number of days (may be a negative number) %DATETIME{date="31 Dec 2001" incdays="1"}%
inchours="..." Increase the date by any number of hours (may be a negative number) %DATETIME{date="31 Dec 2001 - 07:00" format="$hours" inchours="-1"}%
incminutes="..." Increase the date by any number of minutes (may be a negative number) %DATETIME{date="31 Dec 2001" format="$minutes" incminutes="15"}%
incseconds="..." Increase the date by any number of seconds (may be a negative number) %DATETIME{date="31 Dec 2001" format="$seconds" incseconds="20"}%
timezone="..." Specify the time zone in which the result is displayed. Please note that this parameter affects only display. It doesn't affect how the date parameter value is evaluated. As of July 2015, this papameter requires TWiki core downloaded from http://svn.twiki.org to work %DATETIME{"$hour:$min $tz" timezone="America/New_York"}%

Formatting parameters

See GMTIME{"format"} for general date and time formatting parameters to pass to format. DateTimePlugin supports the following additional paramters:

Parameter Description Example
$i_month The localized short name of the month. Ago
$lmonth The English long name of the month. July
$i_lmonth The localized long name of the month. Julho
$i_wday The summarized internationalized name of the day of the week. Qua
$lwday The English long name of the day of the week. Wednesday
$i_lwday The localized long name of the day of the week. Quarta-feira

Overview of all formatting variables

$seconds 53
$minutes 01
$hours 14
$day 14
$wday Thu
$i_wday Thu
$i_lwday Thursday
$dow 4
$week 46
$month Nov
$mo 11
$i_month Nov
$i_lmonth November
$year 2024
$ye 24
$tz GMT
$iso 2024-11-14T14:01Z
$rcs 2024/11/14 14:01:53
$http Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:01:53 GMT
$epoch 1731560513

Examples

Yesterday was %DATETIME{"$day $month $year" incdays="-1"}%

results in:

Yesterday was Wednesday, 13 Nov 2024


One week from now is %DATETIME{"$wday, $day $month $year" incdays="7"}%

results in:

One week from now is Thu, 21 Nov 2024


To create time-based topics:

%DATETIME{
"Create TODO topic for tomorrow: [[ToDo$year$mo$day]] ($lwday, $day $lmonth)"
incdays="1"
}%

results in:

Create TODO topic for tomorrow: ToDo20241115 (Friday, 15 November)

Limitations

Due to date handling in Perl, DateTimePlugin cannot handle dates earlier than 1970.

Localization

Localized dates are read from configure.

Plugin Installation Instructions

Note: You do not need to install anything on your browser to use this plugin. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the server where TWiki is running.

  • Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)
  • Unzip DateTimePlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:
    File: Description:
    lib/TWiki/Plugins/DateTimePlugin.pm Plugin Perl module
    data/TWiki/DateTimePlugin.txt Plugin topic
    data/TWiki/VarDATETIME.txt Variable documentation topic
  • Visit configure in your TWiki installation, and enable the plugin in the {Plugins} section.

  • Debugging: Visit configure and set {DateTimePlugin}{Debug} to 1.

Plugin Info

  • One line description, is shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
    • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Display date and time with formatting options and localized dates

Plugin Author: TWiki:Main.AurelioAHeckert, TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens
Copyright: © 2004 TWiki:Main.AurelioAHeckert
© 2008 TWiki:Main.ArthurClemens
© 2008-2016 TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
© 2004-2016 TWiki:TWiki.TWikiContributor
License: GPL (GNU General Public License)
Plugin Version: 2016-04-25
2016-04-25: TWikibug:Item7703: Small tweak in configure setting to avoid horizontal scrolling that affects all other extensions; switch to GPL v3 from v2 -- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
2015-07-14: TWikibug:Item7677: DATETIME{...} now takes the timezone parameter -- TWiki:Main.HideyoImazu
2015-05-18: TWikibug:Item7655: DATETIME{$epoch} does not take inc* into account -- TWiki:Main.HideyoImazu
2013-03-27: TWikibug:Item7473: DATETIME{...} showing time in the local time zone regardless of {DisplayTimeValues} -- TWiki:Main.HideyoImazu
2013-04-22: TWikibug:Item7123: Add twisty to installation instructions and history -- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
2013-04-22: TWikibug:Item7151: Change CALC to CALCULATE in DATETIME related links -- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
2012-11-12: TWikibug:Item7020: Categorize TWiki Variable -- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
2012-10-05: TWikibug:Item6947: Support unix timestamp for the input -- TWiki:Main.MahiroAndo
2011-05-14: TWikibug:Item6701: Small fix in Config.spec -- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny
28 Feb 2008 1.0 Arthur Clemens: Major rewrite to make this plugin compatible with (and use from) TWiki::Time. Localized language strings are now read from configure.
27 Jul 2004 0.90 Aurelio A Heckert: First release
CPAN Dependencies: none
Other Dependencies: none
Perl Version: 5.005
TWiki:Plugins.Benchmark: GoodStyle nn%, FormattedSearch nn%, DateTimePlugin nn%
Plugin Home: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/DateTimePlugin
Feedback: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/DateTimePluginDev
Appraisal: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/DateTimePluginAppraisal

Related Topics: VarDATETIME, TWikiPlugins, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, UserDocumentationCategory

Topic revision: r1 - 2016-04-26 - TWikiContributor
 
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