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How to format a Unix timestamp into a readable date and time string?

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In website content management, the way time is presented is crucial to user experience.Although the system may prefer a unified and efficient Unix timestamp format in the background processing, for visitors, a string of irregular numbers is obviously not as intuitive and easy to understand as Anqi CMS knows this and provides a simple yet powerful tool to solve this problem.

Unix timestamp: 'Time language' in the database

A Unix timestamp is simply the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight on January 1, 1970 (UTC/GMT).It is a globally unified time representation that does not change with regions and time zones, which is very suitable for database storage, data transmission, and programming calculations.In Anqi CMS, the article's publish time (CreatedTime）、Update Time（UpdatedTime), even the user's login records or VIP expiration time are usually stored in this numeric form.

However, when these timestamps are directly presented on the website's front end, they will only be a series of numbers, for example1678886400This display is meaningless to ordinary users, and no date or time information can be obtained from it.

The solution of Anqi CMS:stampToDateTag

To make these numbers 'speak', Anqi CMS provides a namedstampToDateThe template tag, which can easily convert Unix timestamps to any readable date and time format you need.

The basic usage of this tag is very intuitive:{{stampToDate(时间戳, "格式")}}

Here:

  • 时间戳: Is the Unix timestamp you want to convert, which is usually 10 digits. In Anqi CMS templates, it is usually going to beitem.CreatedTime/archive.UpdatedTimeVariables
  • 格式This is a string that defines the format you want the date and time to be displayed in.

Understand the time formatting rules of Go language

stampToDateThe core of the label lies in its second parameter-the date and time format string. Anqi CMS is developed based on Go language, so its time formatting follows the unique rules of Go language rather than commonY-m-d H:i:soryyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.

Go language uses a fixed reference time2006-01-02 15:04:05As a formatted template. You just need to replace the year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and other elements in this reference time with the display style you want.

For example:

  • If you want to displayYear-Month-Datethen the format string is"2006-01-02".
  • If you want to displayYear/Month/Datethen the format string is"2006/01/02".
  • If you want to displayYear Month Day (Chinese)then the format string is"2006年01月02日".
  • If you want to displayHour:Minute:Secondthen the format string is"15:04:05".
  • If you want to displayYear-Month-Date Hour:Minutethen the format string is"2006-01-02 15:04".

You can also combine these elements, even add other characters, such as days of the week or AM/PM, and Go language will intelligently parse and output according to the template you define.

Sample application: Format document publish time in template

Assuming you are building a list of articles page and want to display the publication time of the articles in the format of "Year-Month-Day Hour:Minute". This is usually involved in the Anqi CMS template.archiveListorarchiveDetail.

A common use case is to display the publishing time of an article:

{# 在一个文章列表循环中 #}
{% archiveList archives with type="page" limit="10" %}
    {% for item in archives %}
    <li>
        <a href="{{item.Link}}">
            <h5>{{item.Title}}</h5>
            <div>
                <span>发布于：{{stampToDate(item.CreatedTime, "2006年01月02日 15:04")}}</span>
                <span>更新于：{{stampToDate(item.UpdatedTime, "2006-01-02 15:04:05")}}</span>
            </div>
        </a>
    </li>
    {% endfor %}
{% endarchiveList %}

In the code above,item.CreatedTimeanditem.UpdatedTimeIt is the Unix timestamp retrieved from the database. ThroughstampToDateLabels, they are converted to user-friendly date and time strings. For example, ifitem.CreatedTimeIs1678886400, it may be displayed as “March 15, 2023, 00:00”.

You can also directly format the time of the current document on the document detail page:

{# 在文档详情页中 #}
<div>
    <h1>{% archiveDetail with name="Title" %}</h1>
    <p>发布时间：{% archiveDetail archiveCreatedTime with name="CreatedTime" %}{{stampToDate(archiveCreatedTime, "2006年1月2日 下午3点04分")}}</p>
    <p>最近更新：{% archiveDetail archiveUpdatedTime with name="UpdatedTime" %}{{stampToDate(archiveUpdatedTime, "2006-01-02 15:04:05")}}</p>
</div>

This shows two different custom formats that you can choose flexibly according to the page design and user habits.

More formatting scenarios

In addition to the publication and update time of the article, there are many other scenarios in Anqi CMS that involve timestamps, such as the registration time of users, the last login time, and the expiration time of VIP members, etc. As long as you can obtain these timestamp variables, you can use them.stampToDateFormat labels.

For example, show the user's last login time:

{# 假设 userDetail 标签可以获取到用户详情 #}
{% userDetail lastLogin with name="LastLogin" id="1" %}
<p>最后登录时间：{{stampToDate(lastLogin, "2006/01/02 15:04")}}</p>

Summary

BystampToDateLabels and flexible Go language time formatting rules, Anqi CMS provides strong and easy-to-use time display control capabilities for website operators.Whether it is a list page, detail page, or other module that needs to display time information, you can convert the cold Unix timestamp into a clear and friendly date and time string according to your actual needs, thereby greatly enhancing the professionalism and user experience of the website.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. The Unix timestamp I provide is 13 digits long,stampToDateCan the tag handle it?CurrentlystampToDateThe tag is designed to handle the standard 10-digit Unix timestamp (second level).If your timestamp is 13 digits (millisecond level), you need to divide it by 1000 before passing it in to convert it to a 10-digit second-level timestamp. For example:{{stampToDate(item.CreatedTime / 1000, "2006-01-02")}}.

2. Are there any other tags or filters for formatting dates and times in Anqicms?The template engine of Anqicms also supports a nameddateThe filter, but it requires the value to be in Go language already.time.Timetype, not the original Unix timestamp. For Unix timestamps directly retrieved from the database,stampToDateTags are a more direct and recommended formatting method.dateFilters are more suitable for those processed by the Go backend and converted totime.Timethe variable of the object.

3. Why does Go language use time formatting2006-01-02 15:04:05Does this number serve as a reference? What is its special meaning?This is a unique feature of Go language design, which does not use placeholders like other languagesYrepresents the year,mRepresents a month), but instead chose a specific date and time as a formatting template. This date2006年1月2日 下午3点4分5秒It is a 'reference point' used in the official Go language documentation to display all time elements, each number and position represents the corresponding date and time component. For example,2006representing a four-digit year,01representing a two-digit month,02representing a two-digit date,15Represents the hour in 24-hour format, etc. Just remember this special date-time string and replace the numbers as needed to define the output format.

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