display date as timeago

dbmurray

I'm trying to display dates from an rss feed as timeago? Any help?

Right now I'm getting the date printed fine, but I want it to show as X days, X hours, X minutes ago (ignoring an X if it's zero).

Thanks!

Here's the file I'm using.

<?php

class xItem {
var $xTitle;
var $xPubDate;
}

// general vars
$sTitle = "";
$sPubDate = "";
$arItems = array();
$itemCount = 0;
$format = '%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S';
$strf = strftime($format);

// ****** Start User-Defined Vars ******
// rss url goes here
$uFile = "http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/1.0/user/dbmurray/recenttracks.rss";
// font goes here
$uFont = "Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif";
$uFontSize = "2";
// *** End User-Defined Vars ***********

function startElement($parser, $name, $attrs) {
global $curTag;

$curTag .= "^$name";

}

function endElement($parser, $name) {
global $curTag;

$caret_pos = strrpos($curTag,'^');

$curTag = substr($curTag,0,$caret_pos);

}

function characterData($parser, $data) { global $curTag; // get the Channel information first
global $sTitle, $sLink, $sDescription;

$titleKey = "^{RSS^{CHANNEL^TITLE";}}
$linkKey = "^{RSS^{CHANNEL^LINK";}}
$descKey = "^{RSS^{CHANNEL^{DESCRIPTION";}}}
if ($curTag == $titleKey) {
$sTitle = $data;
}
elseif ($curTag == $linkKey) {
$sLink = $data;
}
elseif ($curTag == $descKey) {
$sDescription = $data;
}

// now get the items
global $arItems, $itemCount;
$itemTitleKey = "^{RSS^{CHANNEL^{ITEM^TITLE";}}}
$itemPubDateKey = "^{RSS^{CHANNEL^{ITEM^PUBDATE";}}}

if ($curTag == $itemTitleKey) {
// make new xItem
$arItems[$itemCount] = new xItem();

// set new item object's properties
$arItems[$itemCount]->xTitle = $data;
}
elseif ($curTag == $itemPubDateKey) {
$arItems[$itemCount]->xPubDate = $data;
// increment item counter
$itemCount++;
}
}

// main loop
$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startElement", "endElement");
xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, "characterData");
if (!($fp = fopen($uFile,"r"))) {
die ("could not open RSS for input");
}
while ($data = fread($fp, 4096)) {
if (!xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, feof($fp))) {
die(sprintf("XML error: %s at line %d", xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xml_parser)),

xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser)));
}
}
xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

// write out the items
?>

<html>
<head>
<title><?php echo ($sTitle); ?></title>
<meta name = "description" content = "<?php echo ($sDescription); ?>">
</head>
<body bgcolor = "#FFFFFF">

 
 
<?php
for ($i=0;$i<count($arItems);$i++) {
$txItem = $arItems[$i];
?>
" size = "<?php echo($uFontSize); ?>">

<?php echo($txItem->xTitle); ?>
 
<?php echo($txItem->xPubDate); ?>


 

<?php
if ($bDesc) {
?>

<?php
}
echo (" ");
}
?>

</body>
</html>

bpat1434

well, take this and apply it:

<?php

$prevTime = mktime(13,15,00,1,31,1984);
$now = time();
$diff = $now-$prevTime;

$mins		= 60; // 60 seconds -> 1 minute
$hours	= $mins*60; // 60 minutes -> 1 hour
$days		= $hours*24; // 24 hours -> 1 day
$weeks	= $days*7; // 7 days -> 1 week
$months = $weeks*4; // 4 weeks -> 1 month (Average, not precise)
$years	= $weeks*52; // 52 weeks -> 1 year (More precise, but still not exact)

$ydif = floor($diff/$years); // Divide difference by years... round remainder DOWN
$diff = $diff-($ydif*$years); // Subtract the years from the difference
$mndif = floor($diff/$months);
$diff = $diff-($mndif*$months);
$ddif = floor($diff/$days);
$diff = $diff-($ddif*$days);
$hdif = floor($diff/$hours);
$diff = $diff-($hdif*$hours);
$mdif = floor($diff/$mins);
$diff = $diff-($mdif*$mins);
$sdif = $diff; // The remainder will be the seconds left, no math needed!!

// Echo out in the form you want:
echo $ydif.' years '.$mndif.' months '.$ddif.' days '.$hdif.' hours '.$mdif.' minutes '.$sdif.' seconds ago';
?>

~Brett

dbmurray

Thanks. I will give it a shot.

dbmurray

Sorry, I am nearly clueless about this stuff so far.

I can see how the code you posted displays time ago with a pre-determined timestamp put into the code itself as you have (I think), but I have no idea how to strip the date from each item as it comes in over the RSS feed.

Somehow, I need to plug that incoming data in to equal the $prevtime you have added in your code. Somehow I need to do that conversion of the timecoming Previous time, subtract the difference using your code, and then output it on each loop in my code where I have

<?php echo($txItem->xPubDate); ?>

In other words, how can I mate the two codes?

Thanks again for your help!