Date formats or how to display dates in MODX 3

MODX is written in PHP, and as such relies on the core PHP date functions, such as strftime. The discussion here can be quite complex because the strftime and strtotime functions deploy similar arguments, but they are not identical.

The discussion here pertains primarily to the following content areas:

• createdon — creation date;
• deletedon — deletion date;
• editedon — last edit date;
• publishedon — date the resource was published;
• pub_date — date the resource should appear in the publication;
• unpub_date — unpublish date.

Unix timestamps and formatted dates

Depending on the source and method of obtaining the value, you may get either a Unix timestamps or a formatted date. Unix timestamps are recognized as a large integer (representing the number of seconds since January 1, 1970).

In MODX date output modifier, which is used to format dates using the PHP strftime() function, expects a unix timestamp. To convert a formatted date to a unix timestamp, you will use the strtotime output modifier.

So if a value of, say, [[*madeon]] returns a formatted date, you need to first convert it to a unix timestamp using [[*madeon:strtotime]] before you can format it with date , but if the value immediately returns a unix timestamp, you can skip this.

General Examples

It’s impossible to list every possible example, but here are some common ways to format dates using MODX output filters.

All parameters

The date output modifier internally implements the PHP strftime function, so all strftime documentation applies to the date output modifier as well.

To change the language used by the date output modifier (e.g. for day and month names), configure the locale in the system settings in MODX accordingly.

Server Compatibility Note

Not all servers support all formatting options, in particular on Windows “%e” is not supported, and “%z” and “%Z” return the time zone name instead of the offset. On Mac, %P is not supported.