React-since

A tiny component for those needing "humanistic" outputs rather than "to-the-second" accuracy to display the amount of time passed. For example, instead of item was added 37 seconds ago this component would render item was added just now. See Outputs section below for further information.

Install

npm i -S react-since

Use

import Since from 'react-since'

Date Prop (string)

The component requires a date prop and returns a <span></span> containing the approximate time since that date.

const date = new Date().toString()
<Since date={date} />

Live Prop (Boolean)

The component by default is live meaning that dates will auto-update at set intervals. You can override this setting by passing a live prop like this:

<Since date={'2019-05-24 10:30:00.000Z'} live={false} />

Seconds Prop (Number)

The default refresh rate is 60 seconds but you can specify a different value by passing a seconds prop like this:

<Since date={'2019-05-24 10:30:00.000Z'} live seconds={30} />

If the live prop is set to false then the seconds prop is ignored.

Outputs

Outputs are designed to be humanistic. The thinking is that users typically want to know a rough idea of how long ago an event took place and aren't concerned with highly accurate timings. See the table below for example outputs.

Time Difference	Output
30 seconds	"just now"
32 minutes	"30 minutes ago"
70 minutes	"an hour ago"
3 hours	"a few hours ago"