A multi-lingual component for React that renders the approximate time ago in words from a specific past date using an HTML5 time element.

Features:

• configurable to auto-update its display as time passes by
• supports localized output (with the help of Counterpart and Damals)

Install via npm:

% npm install react-ago-component

Just require and render:

var Ago  = require('react-ago-component');
var then = new Date('Sat Mar 06 1976 04:05:09 GMT+0100 (CET)');

// render component with
Ago({ date: then });  // JSX: <Ago date={then} />

This will output something in the likes of

<time datetime="1976-03-06T04:05:09+01:00" title="Sat, 6 Mar 1976 04:05">about 38 years ago</time>

The date prop can be set to a Date object, a number holding the milliseconds since Unix epoch, or to a string (which will be parsed as a Date).

There is also a tooltipFormat prop to configure the verbosity of the HTML title attribute. Valid values are "short", "long", and "default" (somewhere in-between).

If you want your page to auto-update the visible portion of the rendered HTML element as time passes by, just set the autoUpdate prop to true. You can also provide an update interval (in seconds) by setting the prop's value to a natural number greater than 0.

To localize the rendered output for a locale other than "en" (English), load the corresponding translations and set the locale using Counterpart and Damals:

counterpart.registerTranslations('de', require('counterpart/locales/de'));
counterpart.registerTranslations('de', require('damals/locales/de'));

counterpart.setLocale('de');

When switching locales the Ago component will auto-adjust its output (no page reloading necessary).

The examples code is located at the example directory. You can clone this repository and run make install example and point your web browser to http://localhost:3000.

Here's a quick guide:

1. Fork the repo and make install.

2. Run the tests. We only take pull requests with passing tests, and it's great to know that you have a clean slate: make test.

3. Add a test for your change. Only refactoring and documentation changes require no new tests. If you are adding functionality or are fixing a bug, we need a test!

4. Make the test pass.

5. Push to your fork and submit a pull request.

Released under The MIT License.