DateTimePlugin

Display date and time with formatting options and localized dates.

This plugin is an extension of the Foswiki variable GMTIME{"format"} (that only allows to show the current date 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.

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{"$wday"}%
date="..."	Any date in one of the following formats: Default Foswiki format     31 Dec 2001 - 23:59 Foswiki format without time (defaults to 00:00)     31 Dec 2001 Date seperated by '/', '.' or '-', time with '.' or ':' Date and time separated by ' ', '.' and/or '-'     2001/12/31 23:59:59     2001.12.31.23.59.59     2001/12/31 23:59     2001.12.31.23.59     2001-12-31 23:59     2001-12-31 - 23:59 ISO format     2001-12-31T23:59:59 ISO dates may have a timezone specifier, either Z or a signed difference in hh:mm format. For example:     2001-12-31T23:59:59+01:00     2001-12-31T23:59Z The local timezone will be assumed. Note: will not handle dates before 1970!	%DATETIME{date="2001/12/31"}%
incdays="..."	Increase the date by any number of days (may be a negative number)	%DATETIME{date="31 Dec 2001" incdays="1"}%
inchours="..."	Increase the date by any number of hours (may be a negative number)	%DATETIME{date="31 Dec 2001 - 07:00" format="$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"}%

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	08
$minutes	42
$hours	06
$day	22
$wday	Tue
$i_wday	Tue
$i_lwday	Tuesday
$dow	2
$week	21
$month	May
$mo	05
$i_month	May
$i_lmonth	May
$year	2012
$ye	12
$tz	GMT
$iso	2012-05-22T06:42Z
$rcs	2012/05/22 06:42:08
$http	Tue, 22 May 2012 06:42:08 GMT
$epoch	1337668928

Examples

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

results in:

Yesterday was Monday, 21 May 2012

---

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

results in:

One week from now is Tue, 29 May 2012

---

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: ToDo20120523 (Wednesday, 23 May)

Limitations

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

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, i.e. %DATETIMEPLUGIN_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

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

Localization

Localized dates are read from configure - see settings with {DateTimePlugin}.

Debugging

Visit configure and set {DateTimePlugin}{Debug} to 1.

Plugin Installation Instructions

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

• Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)
• Unzip DateTimePlugin.zip in your Foswiki installation directory.
• Enable the plugin in configure

Plugin Info

Plugin Author:	TWiki:Main.AurelioAHeckert (2004), Foswiki:Main.ArthurClemens (2008, 2009)
Plugin Version:	1.1 (11 Mar 2009)
Change History:
11 Mar 2009	1.1 Foswiki release
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
License:	GPL (GNU General Public License)
Plugin Home:	http://foswiki.org/Extensions/DateTimePlugin
Feedback:	http://foswiki.org/Extensions/DateTimePluginDev