4.1.12 Update - New Date Feature Location

[AshieF73]

 

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Other enhancements and improvements:

• The way dates are formatted can now be customised by language strings. For example, if you want to change the date format to "DD-MM-YYYY" that is now possible. With this change, the new default is US-style ("March 4, 1992") rather than the previous European-style ("4 March 1992").

 

• Does anyone know where this configuration is in the ACP I am unable to find it.

[Adlago]

Community - Calendar - Settings - but again a big disappointment - not working!!!

[Flitterkill]

It works, just tested. And that is where the setting is.

It's date format for events. Granted, not particularly well labeled at all - and I don't know why it is parked there.

The changes do carry over to forums, etc. The four dropdown choices work; testing custom formats now.

Keep in mind the over-riding date system still has priority - that is, if something is within an hour of posting it will say one hour ago - days ago will give you March 7, not March 7th and so on.

EDIT: I take it all back. It seemed to work and now, not at all. Maybe this is targeted just to calendar in which case I have no idea where the setting is.

[Adlago]

In my time zone (GMT+3)  today is 25 May 2016. But according to IPS version 4.1.12 is May 25 2016 - everywhere - in the calendar and forums too.
Promised date format does not work.

[Flitterkill]

I think I agree. It isn't working in Calendar either. Still testing but it looks like the feature is missing.

EDIT: just looked at older install. This calendar setting stuff was there previously. 

[Nathan Explosion]

Pretty sure the blurb at the start gives the answer:

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The way dates are formatted can now be customised by language strings

So, wouldn't checking the language localisation make sense for testing this out?

[Adriano Faria]

Calendar? So the format it's only for events? 

[Nathan Explosion]

2 minutes ago, Adriano Faria said:

Calendar? So the format it's only for events? 

Nope.

Example: _date_this_year_long = a language string.

Enable the language tools so you see the front end keys and take note and look them up and change them all you want.

Fill your boots, guys

[Flitterkill]

Wow. If that's the case it's way un-intuitive for the end user.

[Adlago]

In my site live I've changed a few templates calendar. I also added a few more keys language. It worked for me six months more - calendar and forums date is correct.
Before the update to 4.1.12 / just a test installation / - I regained default templates. Date format only works US standard. It promised date format - is not met.

 

[Flitterkill]

That's not it NathanX. _date_this_year_long is just a list of the month names.

Something is wrong or missing. We should have something like the Calendar option I posted above, except system wide, and working.

Not only that, but if you promote a new feature I can't see how they would bury it unremarked as a new (or repurposed) language string.

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Custom date formatting

We have used built-in, automatic locale formats for dates since 4.0, but it became increasingly clear that this did not offer the flexibility that some community administrators desired. As a result, 4.1.12 re-introduces the ability to provide custom formats for dates.

 

[Nathan Explosion]

26 minutes ago, Flitterkill said:

That's not it NathanX. _date_this_year_long is just a list of the month names.

It's a little bit more than a list of month names - it produces this "May 25", not just "May".

I'm sure someone with the localisation skills will be along to document it (which IPS should have done, if not already) so people can see how to use whatever the strings actually are.

[Flitterkill]

If this is what we end up getting it is a far cry from what I was expecting.

[Flitterkill]

Sorry guys - that's it.

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The ability to change the date format is within the language pack. Look for keys_date_day_and_month, _date_this_year_short, _date_this_year_long, _date_last_year_short, _date_last_year_long.

 

[ossipetz]

well having the date formats near the language is the right direction. without this thread I would not have thought those keys are the right ones . I tried searching the date formats in the language settings - not in the keys.

but is there a way to get the year into those format? It is not clear to me what %s or {0#} refer to 

 

[Flitterkill]

That's the %s stuff in case you were wondering. 

 

_date_day_and_month	
	
{!1#[1:January][2:February][3:March][4:April][5:May][6:June][7:July][8:August][9:September][10:October][11:November][12:December]} {0#}	


_date_this_year_short

{!1#[1:Jan][2:Feb][3:Mar][4:Apr][5:May][6:Jun][7:Jul][8:Aug][9:Sep][10:Oct][11:Nov][12:Dec]} {0#}


_date_this_year_long

{!1#[1:January][2:February][3:March][4:April][5:May][6:June][7:July][8:August][9:September][10:October][11:November][12:December]} {0#}


_date_last_year_short

{!1#[1:Jan][2:Feb][3:Mar][4:Apr][5:May][6:Jun][7:Jul][8:Aug][9:Sep][10:Oct][11:Nov][12:Dec]} {0#}, %s


_date_last_year_long

{!1#[1:January][2:February][3:March][4:April][5:May][6:June][7:July][8:August][9:September][10:October][11:November][12:December]} {0#}, %s

The month stuff is a standard array - just change the month names as you would like. The {0#} is where the day var is placed. The comma is there straight up and the %s is pulling over the year from the datetime method somewhere. If you move the structural elements around you can replicate the EU formatting or, really, do whatever up to a point.

In order, top to bottom, I believe you get this:

January 1

Jan 1

January 1

Jan 1, 2015

January 1, 2015

About the only thing I was expecting from this feature that occurred was the default flipping from EU to US formatting. 

I was probably expecting too much. Looks like it's way down the line before we get ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) and the ability to *keep* the hour/minute bits appended instead of the amorphous March 2nd, 1 year ago, etc. Ordinals might be a new add over the 3 series (can't remember at this point) but the hour bits are sorely missed from the 3 series. I get that the new way of doing things is pretty cool but (few/some/many) still (want/need) to have post times contain the time aspect throughout and not just the date.

And for any devs reading, yes, I know, we can hover over the date and get the precise mm/dd/yyyy hour:minute popup. 

Not the same thing.

[Gabriel Torres]

Still waiting an official answer from the support team on this. After the upgrade all months are now in English and I can't find where I configure the date/time format. We don't even have the Calendar app installed, BTW.

[Flitterkill]

@Gabriel Torres

I believe these are new language bits so I guess any non-English language packs need to be updated. You can wait for others to do that and update them in the marketplace or do it yourself manually

ACP - Customization - Localization then choose the only option which is languages

On the right side, click the left-most button of the three (has a globe icon) for the language you need changed.

Then, use the search function on that page - top right of the inner box

Paste in 

_date_day_and_month

and change the data as needed. Repeat with the others I posted above.

 

 

[Hexsplosions]

I can't find a sensible way to change the date format back to EU style.

I have two forums which I've taken a screenshot of, 4.1.12 on the left and 4.1.11 on the right:

I cannot find any way to correct the style on 4.1.12 back to what it was previously. The calendar setting doesn't sound like it should be the right one, nor does changing it have any effect.

How can something so simple become so complicated?

[Gabriel Torres]

The official answer is this:

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These are stored within language strings now. If you look for language strings with _date at the beginning, you will see them all there.

 

@Evil Edwina this particular bit is: _date_this_year_short

You should change the position of {0#}, which is the token for the day of the month.

I.e., from:

{!1#[1:Jan][2:Feb][3:Mar][4:Apr][5:May][6:Jun][7:Jul][8:Aug][9:Sep][10:Oct][11:Nov][12:Dec]} {0#}

To

{0#} {!1#[1:Jan][2:Feb][3:Mar][4:Apr][5:May][6:Jun][7:Jul][8:Aug][9:Sep][10:Oct][11:Nov][12:Dec]}

You should repeat the same idea to the other language strings.

[Hexsplosions]

Thank you @Gabriel Torres

[SaltyBart]

Great! @Gabriel Torres !

[marklcfc]

The display defaults to this  November 11, 2015

How do I display like this 11 November 2015 ?

[Charles]

6 minutes ago, marklcfc said:

The display defaults to this  November 11, 2015

How do I display like this 11 November 2015 ?

Create a new language pack that uses a British English locale.

[marklcfc]

25 minutes ago, Charles said:

Create a new language pack that uses a British English locale.

I had changed it to uk, do I have to create it new?

I created a new one and no change to the dates on profiles/hovercards. (apart from the newest member area in stats where it switches the month and date around)