Question

I have a comics website, http://www.hittingtreeswithsticks.com/, which I add new comics to each week. I’d like a newly posted comic to remain highlighted until 3 days after the post date.

So, here’s before:

Here’s desired:

I’m considering the following logic:

date in the database is currently set to datetime: 0000-00-00 00:00:00

PHP: Get date of comic with a date = $row[‘date’] url parameter:

        echo '<ul>';
            $imageCounter = 0;
            while ($imageCounter < $imagesPerPage && ($row = $catResult->fetch_assoc())) {                  
                echo '<li>';
                    echo    '<span class="comics"><a href=".?action=viewimage&site='.$site. '&id=' . $row['id'] .'">
                            <img src="./scripts/thumber.php?date='. $row['date'] . '&img=.' . $thumbpath.$row['thumb'] . '&mw=220&mh=220"/></a> 
                            <br /><br /> ' . $row['description'] . '</span>';                               
                echo '</li>';
                $imageCounter++;
            }
    echo '</ul>';

Then set datetime to that date…

$datetime1 = date_create($_GET['date']);

Now, I’d like to somehow set datetime2 = (datetime1 + 3 days)…

Then compare…

if ($datetime1 < $datetime2) {
   set "comics" span class in CSS file to something else that would somehow highlight the newest post...
}
else {
   set "comics" span class in CSS file to default
}

Is there an easier way to accomplish what I’m trying to do?

EDIT——————————–

I’m trying this now to highlight the newest comic for a period of 3 days… unfortunately, I’m struggling to figure out how to highlight just the latest comic instead of all of the comics if the condition is met.

    //GET date  
        $desc = (isset($_GET['description']) ? ($_GET['description']) : null);  


    $row = $catResult->fetch_assoc();

    $current_date = new DateTime;
    echo "Current Date: " . $current_date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

    echo "<br />";

    $comic_date = new DateTime($row['date']);
    echo "Comic Date: " . $comic_date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

    $comic_date->modify('3 day');


    //DISPLAY IMAGES TO CORRECT PAGE FROM DATABASE  
    echo '<ul>';
        $imageCounter = 0;
        while (($row['date'] < $current_date) && ($imageCounter < $imagesPerPage) && ($row = $catResult->fetch_assoc())) {
                echo '<li>';                
                    echo    '<span class="comics"><a href=".?action=viewimage&site='.$site. '&id=' . $row['id'] .'">
                                <img src="./scripts/thumber.php?img=.' . $thumbpath.$row['thumb'] . '&mw=220&mh=220"/></a> 
                                <br /><br /> ' . $row['description'] . $row['date'] . '</span>';                                
                    $imageCounter++;
                echo '</li>';

            }   

        if ($row['date'] >= $current_date) {
                echo '<li>';                
                    echo    '<span class="newcomics"><a href=".?action=viewimage&site='.$site. '&id=' . $row['id'] .'">
                                <img src="./scripts/thumber.php?img=.' . $thumbpath.$row['thumb'] . '&mw=220&mh=220"/></a> 
                                <br /><br /> ' . $row['description'] . $row['date'] . '</span>';                                
                    $imageCounter++;
                echo '</li>';
            }
    echo '</ul>';   

Answer 1

It is very easy to compare dates with DateTime.

Example how to modify and compare dates:

# PHP >= 5.4
$row['date'] = '2013-01-03 16:15:14';
$d = (new DateTime($row['date']))->modify('3 day');
echo $d >= (new DateTime) ? 'NEW' : 'OLD';

# PHP < 5.4
$row['date'] = '2013-01-03 16:15:14';
$n = new DateTime;
$d = new DateTime($row['date']);
$d->modify('3 day');
echo $d >= $n ? 'NEW' : 'OLD';

OR

You can do this with sql statement:

SELECT
    t.*,
    t.date >= DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 3 DAY) AS is_new
FROM 
    someTable AS t