Question

Possible Duplicate:
How do I calculate relative time?

Is there anything similar to rails’ time_ago_in_words helper for asp.net MVC?

Answer 1

Depending on your intended output target, the jQuery plugin Timeago may be a better option.

Here’s an HtmlHelper to create an <abbr /> element containing an ISO 8601 timestamp:

public static MvcHtmlString Timeago(this HtmlHelper helper, DateTime dateTime) {
    var tag = new TagBuilder("abbr");
    tag.AddCssClass("timeago");
    tag.Attributes.Add("title", dateTime.ToString("s") + "Z");
    tag.SetInnerText(dateTime.ToString());

    return MvcHtmlString.Create(tag.ToString());
}

Combine the above helper’s output with the following JavaScript somewhere on your page and you’ll be in the money.

<script src="jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="jquery.timeago.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

jQuery(document).ready(function() {
  jQuery("abbr.timeago").timeago();
});