Feature #20310
open
Ability to switch date format (from relative into absolute) in issue notes titles
Description
On Issue page, if there are some notes, every note has its own title, like "Updated by USERNAME about 1 month ago".
If hover "about 1 month ago" with mouse, there is HTML title (hovering tooltip) with absolute date of this note.
I ask an option to turn relative-style "about 1 month ago" titles into absolute-style "2015-06-09 16:56" titles by default. So admin (or even user for himself) could switch between this two modes.
I'm sorry if there is already such functionality, but I didn't find it.
Files
Related issues
Updated by Mischa The Evil over 10 years ago
Antonio Kless wrote:
I ask an option to turn relative-style "about 1 month ago" titles into absolute-style "2015-06-09 16:56" titles by default. [...]
Almost the same result can be achieved using some custom CSS that would change every individual datetime link to activity pages, so that these lines will be shown (note that I use parentheses to indicate a link), instead of like this:
Updated by (USERNAME) (about 1 month) agonow like the following:
Updated by (USERNAME) ([2015-06-09 16:56] about 1 month) ago
See the thread in the forums for the details.
Updated by Toshi MARUYAMA
Updated by Go MAEDA almost 7 years ago
- Related to Feature #3148: Dates formatted as ages are too vague added
Updated by Greg T almost 6 years ago
Mischa The Evil wrote:
Almost the same result can be achieved using some custom CSS
a[href*="activity"][title*=":"]:before {
content: ' [' attr(title) '] ';
}used to provide a mostly acceptable workaround, but in Redmine 4.1.1 with jQuery title, hovering the dates has a very bad flickering effect. :(
This may work in application.js:
$(document).ready(function() {
$('a[href*="activity"][title*=":"]').prepend(function() {
var ret= '['+this.title+'] ';
this.removeAttribute("title");
return ret;
});
});
Relative time should only be an option, though.
Updated by Mizuki ISHIKAWA over 2 years ago
- File feature-33988-v1.patch feature-33988-v1.patch added
- File settings.png settings.png added
- File relative_time.png relative_time.png added
- File relative_time_with_absolute_time.png relative_time_with_absolute_time.png added
- File absolute_time.png absolute_time.png added
I have written a patch for this feature.
After applying this patch, you will be able to choose your favourite format from three different formats.
settings form:
| relative_time(default) | relative_time_with_absolute_time | absolute_time |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
Updated by Antonio Kless over 2 years ago
Thank you Mizuki ISHIKAWA!
There is a little issue: space between the "days" word and the open bracket is missed in relative_time_with_absolute_time format.
Updated by Mizuki ISHIKAWA over 2 years ago
- File relative_time_with_absolute_time_v2.png relative_time_with_absolute_time_v2.png added
- File feature-33988-v2.patch feature-33988-v2.patch added
Antonio Kless wrote in #note-6:
Thank you Mizuki ISHIKAWA!
There is a little issue: space between the "days" word and the open bracket is missed in
relative_time_with_absolute_timeformat.
Thank you for your feedback. Fixed patch.
Updated by Go MAEDA about 2 years ago
- Target version set to Candidate for next major release
Updated by Holger Just over 1 year ago
- Has duplicate Feature #14858: Issues "time" ago added
Updated by Mizuki ISHIKAWA about 1 year ago
- File feature-33988-v3.patch feature-33988-v3.patch added
Attached is a patch that resolves the conflict.
Updated by Holger Just 9 months ago
- Has duplicate Defect #42636: I need the detail date -time,such as "2025/04-25 23:11" ,not such as "11 months ago ",how to do like that ? added
Updated by Go MAEDA 6 months ago
- File 20310-v4.patch 20310-v4.patch added
I have slightly updated the patch on #note-10, posted by Mizuki ISHIKAWA:
- Fixed an issue where Redmine::I18nTest#test_format_timestamp could fail depending on the time zone
- Added a preposition "on" to absolute time labels for more natural expressions (e.g. "Updated on %{value}")
Updated by Mizuki ISHIKAWA 5 months ago
- File 20310-v5.patch 20310-v5.patch added
- File screenshot 2025-09-01 11.58.23.png screenshot 2025-09-01 11.58.23.png added
Go MAEDA wrote in #note-13:
I have slightly updated the patch on #note-10, posted by Mizuki ISHIKAWA:
- Fixed an issue where Redmine::I18nTest#test_format_timestamp could fail depending on the time zone
- Added a preposition "on" to absolute time labels for more natural expressions (e.g. "Updated on %{value}")
Thank you for reviewing.
I have attached 20310-v5.patch, which includes modifications to the label translations from 20310-v4.patch.
Updated by Go MAEDA 5 months ago
- Target version changed from 6.1.0 to Candidate for next major release
I am removing this issue from 6.1.0 for now because I think we should review this patch a bit more.
- When "Relative time with exact time" is selected, the current format "3 days (2025-09-02 16:00) ago" feels awkward. Maybe it should be "3 days ago (2025-09-02 16:00)".
- Showing both relative and exact times seems redundant, and I rarely see other applications using this style.
Updated by Steven Jones 5 months ago
Is there any chance we could look at adding something like this:
https://github.com/github/relative-time-element
And then changing the format is a HTML attribute (format) away and thus super easy, and as a bonus the relative formats auto-update.
This would be super cool in Redmine.