JavaScript code to display Twitter created_at as xxxx ago

Question

I need some JS code that will take the created_at value from a Twitter feed and display it as xxxx ago.

I can find examples of creating the xxxx a

Answer 1

Here's a french language translation of Brady's solution:

function parseTwitterDate(tdate) {
    var system_date = new Date(Date.parse(tdate));
    var user_date = new Date();
    if (K.ie) {
        system_date = Date.parse(tdate.replace(/( \+)/, ' UTC$1'))
    }
    var diff = Math.floor((user_date - system_date) / 1000);
    if (diff <= 1) {return "à l'instant";}
    if (diff < 20) {return "il y a " + diff + " secondes";}
    if (diff < 40) {return "il y a une minute";}
    if (diff < 60) {return "il y a moins d'une minute";}
    if (diff <= 90) {return "il y a une minute";}
    if (diff <= 3540) {return "il y a " + Math.round(diff / 60) + " minutes";}
    if (diff <= 5400) {return "il y a 1 heure";}
    if (diff <= 86400) {return "il y a " + Math.round(diff / 3600) + " heures";}
    if (diff <= 129600) {return "il y a 1 jour";}
    if (diff < 604800) {return "il y a " + Math.round(diff / 86400) + " jours";}
    if (diff <= 777600) {return "il y a 1 semaine";}
    return system_date;
}

// from http://widgets.twimg.com/j/1/widget.js
var K = function () {
    var a = navigator.userAgent;
    return {
        ie: a.match(/MSIE\s([^;]*)/)
    }
}();

Answer 2

I was running into this issue myself, and I think it's time for a grown-up library. I use moment.js for time formatting, so I wrote an extension to do the right display parsing for Twitter:

https://github.com/hijonathan/moment.twitter

It also has a different method for returning super abbreviated timestamps (e.g. 7h) like in the Twitter iPhone app.