Relative Time
Relative times display a date as a localized phrase relative to now, such as "3 hours ago" or "in 2 days". The phrase updates automatically as time passes and respects the user's locale.
Localization is handled by the browser's Intl.RelativeTimeFormat API. No language packs are required.
The date attribute determines when the date/time is calculated from. It must be a string that Date.parse() can interpret or a Date object set via JavaScript.
When using strings, avoid ambiguous dates such as 03/04/2020 which can be interpreted as March 4 or April 3 depending on the user's browser and locale. Instead, always use a valid ISO 8601 date time string to ensure the date will be parsed properly by all clients.
Examples
Keeping Time in Sync
Use the sync attribute to update the displayed value automatically as time passes.
Formatting Styles
You can change how the time is displayed using the format attribute. Note that some locales may display the same values for narrow and short formats.
Localization
Use the lang attribute to set the desired locale.
Chinese:
German:
Greek:
Russian:
Importing
If you're using the autoloader or a hosted project, components load on demand — no manual import needed. To cherry-pick a component manually, use one of the following snippets.
Import this component directly from the CDN:
import 'https://ka-f.webawesome.com/webawesome@0.17.0/components/relative-time/relative-time.js';
After installing Web Awesome via npm, import this component:
import '@awesome.me/webawesome/dist/components/relative-time/relative-time.js';
If you're self-hosting Web Awesome, import this component from your server:
import './webawesome/dist/components/relative-time/relative-time.js';
To import this component for React 18 or below, use the following code:
import WaRelativeTime from '@awesome.me/webawesome/dist/react/relative-time/index.js';
Attributes & Properties
Learn more about attributes and properties.
| Name | Description | Reflects |
|---|---|---|
datedate |
The date from which to calculate time from. If not set, the current date and time will be used. When passing a
string, it's strongly recommended to use the ISO 8601 format to ensure timezones are handled correctly. To convert
a date to this format in JavaScript, use
date.toISOString().
Type
Date | string
Default
new Date()
|
|
formatformat |
The formatting style to use.
Type
'long' | 'short' | 'narrow'
Default
'long'
|
|
numericnumeric |
When
auto, values such as "yesterday" and "tomorrow" will be shown when possible. When always, values such as
"1 day ago" and "in 1 day" will be shown.
Type
'always' | 'auto'
Default
'auto'
|
|
syncsync |
Keep the displayed value up to date as time passes.
Type
boolean
Default
false
|