Need help with creating a timestamp button with adjustable formatting

,
#1

I decided to create a new editor toolbar button that, upon clicking, is meant to put a timestamp whereever the text cursor is located using $:/language/Tiddler/DateFormat as the default format if the target tiddler doesn’t have the field timestamp-format with anything in it.

Well… it, sort of works? I have the tiddler $:/core/ui/EditorToolbar/timestamp with the text:

<$action-sendmessage
	$message="tm-edit-text-operation"
	$param="insert-text"
	text={{{ [<targetTiddler>has[timestamp-format]then<now>format:date{!!timestamp-format}else<now>format:date{$:/language/Tiddler/DateFormat}] }}}
/>

For some some reason, the inserted text shows as 00-1-12-31 23:43:52 (the format in $:/language/Tiddler/DateFormat is YYYY-0MM-0DD 0hh:0mm:0ss) and it doesn’t matter if timestamp-format exists or not.

Any help with figuring out why this is the case would be greatly appreciated :sweat_smile:

#2

The default output of the <now> macro is a local-time formatted string using “0hh:0mm, DDth MMM YYYY”, but format:date[...] filter operator expects the input to be a 17-digit system UTC datetime string using “[UTC]YYYY0MM0DD0hh0mm0ss0XXX”.

Try this:

<$let format={{{ [<targetTiddler>get[timestamp-format]else{$:/language/Tiddler/DateFormat}] }}}>
<$action-sendmessage
	$message="tm-edit-text-operation"
	$param="insert-text"
	text={{{ [<now [UTC]YYYY0MM0DD0hh0mm0ss0XXX>format:date<format>] }}}
/>

-e

#3

It works!

Thank you Eric :grin: and the explanation helps a ton, I was really confused by how it was reading the format.

#4

Just gonna tack this on here, you can actually use this to very quickly add new custom text on click, like so: "timestamp-format": "| YYYY-0MM-0DD | |" so if you are keeping your own handtyped interstitial journal, or in my case an activity log, it’s as simple as either clicking the button or pressing the keyboard shortcut.

Just felt like sharing :wink:

EDIT: Actually, I did notice that the timestamp is off. For instance, instead of showing 2200, it is showing 0200. I imagine this is related to the UTC time, but I can’t seem to figure out how to change this? :thinking:

EDIT 2: Well, for the time being, changing the filter to {{{ [<now [UTC]YYYY0MM0DD0hh0mm0ss0XXX>add[200000000]format:date<format>] }}} will have to do

1 Like
#5

thanks for sharing @Justin_H

fyi. I have 3 or 4 timestamp editor toolbar buttons some where with my preferred formats.

#6

Interesting! mind if I ask why you decide to have multiple, and are you familiar with what might be going on with the now macro not using the local system time by chance?

#7

The local system time is typicaly UTC so when we use a time stamp into text we usually want to use local time, as it gets fixed in place. So we need the now time to return local time.

If however we are using fields to store a time stamp, it is wise to also use UTC and when displaying it use the local time. The advantage being if you move to a new time zone (local timezone) all time stamps are “updated” relative to UTC. This is importiant for due dates and other comparisons.

  • Modified and created dates already use UTC

I will look for the multiple formats I decided on. And post back here.

Actualy here are three buttons, you can edit them to suit.

The first I edit to be what I want at the time, or just date, or just time.
Editor-time-date-stamps.json (3.7 KB)

In the control panel Appearence toolbars I often list additional buttons behind the more dropdown if used less often

1 Like
#8

If you could give it a global shortcut of F5 and make it a standard plugin, then you’re off to the races!