Configurations

You can update the library configuration using the TimeAgo::configure or TimeAgo::reconfigure method, both of which accept a Serhii\Ago\Config class. These methods can be called anywhere in your codebase, as long as they are called before the TimeAgo::trans method. If not, the library will fall back to the default configuration.

Configuration Options

configure to Merge

The TimeAgo::configure method lets you update specific settings without altering the rest of the configuration. It merges the new settings with the existing ones, ensuring that previously configured values are preserved. This is ideal for incremental updates when you only need to adjust certain parameters.

reconfigure to Replace

Use the TimeAgo::reconfigure method to completely replace the current configuration. This function resets all settings to their default values before applying the new configuration, ensuring a clean slate for your updates.

Reset Configuration Option

You also have a Serhii\Ago\Option::RESET_CONF option to reset the configuration before getting the processed date output. This is useful when you want to have a clean slate for the output. Read about it in the Options section.

Available Configurations

The list of all available configurations that you can change through the Serhii\Ago\Config class. This will be extended in the next releases.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
lang	string	Lang::EN	Language code of the output following the ISO 639-1 Standard
overwrites	LangOverwrite[]	[]	Custom translations for the language

Change Language

Default language is English. Optionally you can change the language in your application by passing one of the values on Serhii\Ago\Lang static class, or you can pass a string with the language code like 'ru', 'en', 'nl', etc.

You can do it in two ways, either by using the TimeAgo::configure method or by using the Lang::set method.

Lang::set

use Serhii\Ago\Lang;

Lang::set(Lang::RU);

TimeAgo::configure

use Serhii\Ago\TimeAgo;
use Serhii\Ago\Config;
use Serhii\Ago\Lang;

$config = new Config(lang: Lang::RU);
TimeAgo::reconfigure($config);

Lang::set only Changes Language

If you use the Lang::set method for changing the language, it will not reset the configuration to the default values. If you want to reset the configuration, you should use the TimeAgo::reconfigure method with the default configuration.

Supported Languages

The list of all supported languages you can find in Supported Languages section.

Overwrite Translations

There are cases when you want to replace certain translations with your own ones. For example, instead of 1 minute ago you want to have the output 1m or 1 min ago. You can do it with "Overwrites". All you need to do is just to define everything you want to overwrite for a specific language.

Pass an array of overwrites to the configurations. Let's see how we can change the Online to Live in English language.

use Serhii\Ago\TimeAgo;
use Serhii\Ago\Config;
use Serhii\Ago\Lang;

$config = new Config(overwrites: [
    new LangOverwrite(
        lang: Lang::EN,
        online: 'Live',
    ),
]);

TimeAgo::configure($config);

echo TimeAgo::trans('now'); // output: "Live"

Now, when you call the TimeAgo::trans method, you will get Live instead of Online if you time is less than a certain threshold.

What Can Be Overwritten?

There are many things you can overwrite, everything defined in the Serhii\Ago\LangOverwrite class can be changed.

• lang - Language code ISO 639-1 Standard that you want to overwrite
• format - Format of the final output. It can contain the following placeholders:
  • {num} is the number of time units like 1, 2, 3, etc.
  • {timeUnit} is the time unit itself like second, minute, hour, etc.
  • {ago} is the word that is used to indicate that the time is in the past or in the future.
• ago - Suffix for the final output, like "ago"
• online - Is shown when the date is without a small threshold
• justNow - Is shown when the date is within a small threshold with Option::JUST_NOW enabled
• second - Language form, LangForm::class
• minute - Language form, LangForm::class
• hour - Language form, LangForm::class
• day - Language form, LangForm::class
• week - Language form, LangForm::class
• month - Language form, LangForm::class
• year' - Language form, LangForm::class

Language Form LangForm::class

The Serhii\Ago\LangForm class is used for describing plural form of day, hour, minute, second, week, month, year. It allows you to have more flexibility in the translations and make them more accurate for rich languages that have several plural forms for numbers.

CLDR Specification Rules

If you have problems with correct translations for plural forms, refer to the CLDR Specifications Rules for plural rules, it might help you to understand how to define the correct translations.

LangForm has only a single required parameter other, which is used as a default value if other values are not provided. You can also provide zero, one, few and many values if you need to have different translations for different plural forms.