vagueTime.js

A tiny JavaScript library that formats precise time differences as a vague/fuzzy time, e.g. '3 months ago', 'just now' or 'in 2 hours'. Supports English, German and French phrases.

Why would I want that?
What alternative libraries are there?
How tiny is it?
How do I install it?
How do I use it?
How do I set up the build environment?
What license is it released under?

Why would I want that?

Displaying precise dates and times can give a website a formal and officious feel. Using fuzzy or vague time phrases like 'just now' or '2 days ago' can contribute to a much friendlier interface.

vagueTime.js provides a small, clean API for translating timestamps into those user-friendly phrases, heavily supported by unit tests. Vague time strings can be returned in English, German or French.

What alternative libraries are there?

If this project isn't quite what you're looking for, you may be interested in vagueTime's big sister, vagueDate.js. Or if you would like to parse vague time strings rather than generate them, you should try Matthew Mueller's date or Tim Wood's moment.

How tiny is it?

5.4 kb unminified with comments, 1.8 kb minified, 0.8 kb minified + gzipped

How do I install it?

Any of the following will do:

npm install vague-time

jam install vague-time

bower install vague-time

component install philbooth/vagueTime.js

git clone git@github.com:philbooth/vagueTime.js.git

How do I use it?

Loading the library

f you are running in Node.js, Browserify or another CommonJS-style environment, you can require vagueTime.js like so:

var vagueTime = require('vague-time');

It also the supports the AMD-style format preferred by Require.js:

require.config({
    paths: {
        vague-time: 'vagueTime.js/src/vagueTime'
    }
});

require([ 'vague-time' ], function (vagueTime) {
});

If you are including vagueTime.js with an HTML <script> tag, or neither of the above environments are detected, the interface will be globally available as vagueTime.

Calling the exported functions

vagueTime.js exports a single public function, get, which returns a vague time string based on the argument(s) that you pass it.

The arguments are passed as properties on a single options object:

from: timestamp or Date instance denoting the origin point from which the vague time will be calculated. Defaults to Date.now().
to: timestamp or Date instance denoting the target point to which the vague time will be calculated. Defaults to Date.now().
units: string denoting the units that the from and to timestamps are specified in. May be 's' for seconds or 'ms' for milliseconds. Defaults to 'ms'. This property has no effect when from and to are Date instances rather than timestamps.
lang: string denoting the output language. May be 'en' (English), 'de' (German) or 'fr' (French). Defaults to 'en'.

Essentially, if to is less than from, the returned vague time will indicate some point in the past. If to is greater than from, it will indicate some point in the future.

Examples

vagueTime.get({
    from: 60,
    to: 0,
	units: 's'
}); // returns '1 minute ago'

vagueTime.get({
    from: 0,
    to: 60,
	units: 's'
}); // returns 'in 1 minute'

vagueTime.get({
    from: 7200,
    to: 0,
	units: 's'
}); // returns '2 hours ago'

vagueTime.get({
    from: 0,
    to: 7200,
	units: 's',
	lang: 'de'
}); // returns 'vor 2 Stunden'

vagueTime.get({
    from: new Date(2015, 0, 3),
	to: new Date(2014, 11, 31),
	lang: 'de'
}); // returns 'in 3 Tagen'

vagueTime.get({
    from: 0,
    to: 259200,
	units: 's',
	lang: 'de'
}); // returns 'il y a 3 jours'

vagueTime.get({
    from: new Date(2015, 0, 27),
	to: new Date(2014, 11, 31),
	lang: 'de'
}); // returns 'dans 4 semaines'

How do I set up the build environment?

The build environment relies on Node.js, NPM, JSHint, Mocha, Chai and UglifyJS. Assuming that you already have Node/NPM set up, you just need to run npm install to install all of the dependencies as listed in package.json.

The unit tests are in test/vagueTime.js. You can run them with the command npm test. To run the tests in a web browser, open test/vagueTime.html.

What license is it released under?

MIT

nhaesler / vagueTime.js