Angular 2 "time ago" pipe

Question

I am trying to create a 'time ago' pipe for my Angular 2 application.

It should transform a date to a string such as '5 minutes ago' or '60 seconds ago'. It works nicely so far, but it doesn't update after the first calculation. If the given date is for example 5 seconds ago, it displays '5 seconds ago' but never changes after that.

I have already tried setting the pipes 'pure' value to false but that didn't help.

Here is my code:

import {Pipe, PipeTransform} from 'angular2/core';

@Pipe({
  name: 'messageTime',
  pure: false
})
export class MessageTimePipe implements PipeTransform {
  transform(value: Date, []): string {
    var result: string;

    // current time
    let now = new Date().getTime();

    // time since message was sent in seconds
    let delta = (now - value.getTime()) / 1000;

    // format string
    if (delta < 10) {
      result = 'jetzt';
    } else if (delta < 60) { // sent in last minute
      result = 'vor ' + Math.floor(delta) + ' Sekunden';
    } else if (delta < 3600) { // sent in last hour
      result = 'vor ' + Math.floor(delta / 60) + ' Minuten';
    } else if (delta < 86400) { // sent on last day
      result = 'vor ' + Math.floor(delta / 3600) + ' Stunden';
    } else { // sent more than one day ago
      result = 'vor ' + Math.floor(delta / 86400) + ' Tagen';
    }

    return result;
  }
}

I'm using the filter like this:

TypeScript:

import {Component, Input} from 'angular2/core';
import {MessageTimePipe} from '../../pipes/message-time.pipe';

@Component({
  selector: 'message-item',
  pipes: [MessageTimePipe],
  templateUrl: 'build/components/message-item/message-item.component.html'
})
export class MessageItemComponent {
  @Input()
  message: JSON;

  date: Date;

  ngOnInit() {

   this.date = new Date(2016, 3, 16, 12, 49, 10);
  }
}

HTML:

<p class="time">
  {{ date | messageTime }}
</p>

Answer 1

The following library does equivalent job in English and could be forked to change the language or support different ones:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/time-ago-pipe

npm install time-ago-pipe --save

Then in the @NgModule you want to use it in:

import {TimeAgoPipe} from 'time-ago-pipe'

@NgModule({
    imports: [... etc ...],
    declarations: [AppComponent, ...etc..., TimeAgoPipe],
    bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})

And in the template:

<span>{{your_date | timeAgo}}</span>

Answer 2

Finally got it working, quite challenging and requires interval tweaking:)

import {Pipe, ChangeDetectorRef} from 'angular2/core';
import {Observable} from 'rxjs/Observable';
import {AsyncPipe} from 'angular2/common';

@Pipe({
    name: 'messageTime',
    pure: false
})
export class MessageTimePipe extends AsyncPipe
{
    value:Date;
    timer:Observable<string>;

    constructor(ref:ChangeDetectorRef)
    {
        super(ref);
    }

    transform(obj:any, args?:any[]):any
    {
        if (obj instanceof Date)
        {
            this.value = obj;

            if(!this.timer)
            {
                this.timer = this.getObservable();
            }

            return super.transform(this.timer, args);
        }

        return super.transform(obj, args);
    }

    private getObservable()
    {
        return Observable.interval(1000).startWith(0).map(()=>
        {
            var result:string;
            // current time
            let now = new Date().getTime();

            // time since message was sent in seconds
            let delta = (now - this.value.getTime()) / 1000;

            // format string
            if (delta < 10)
            {
                result = 'jetzt';
            }
            else if (delta < 60)
            { // sent in last minute
                result = 'vor ' + Math.floor(delta) + ' Sekunden';
            }
            else if (delta < 3600)
            { // sent in last hour
                result = 'vor ' + Math.floor(delta / 60) + ' Minuten';
            }
            else if (delta < 86400)
            { // sent on last day
                result = 'vor ' + Math.floor(delta / 3600) + ' Stunden';
            }
            else
            { // sent more than one day ago
                result = 'vor ' + Math.floor(delta / 86400) + ' Tagen';
            }
            return result;
        });
    };
}

Answer 3

The accepted answer can not work with angular 7+.

I followed this answer and customize for Vietnamese.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/61341940/4964569

I share for whom concern.

import {Pipe, PipeTransform} from '@angular/core';

    @Pipe({
        name: 'dateAgo',
        pure: true
    })
    export class TimePipe implements PipeTransform {
    
        transform(value: any, args?: any): any {
            if (value) {
                const seconds = Math.floor((+new Date() - +new Date(value)) / 1000);
                if (seconds < 29) // less than 30 seconds ago will show as 'Just now'
                    return 'vừa mới đăng';
                const intervals = {
                    'năm': 31536000,
                    'tháng': 2592000,
                    'tuần': 604800,
                    'ngày': 86400,
                    'giờ': 3600,
                    'phút': 60,
                    'giây': 1
                };
                let counter;
                for (const i in intervals) {
                    counter = Math.floor(seconds / intervals[i]);
                    if (counter > 0){
                      return counter + ' ' + i + ' trước'; // singular (1 day ago)
                    }
                }
            }
            return value;
        }
    }