How to create a function and make it globally available for formatting datetime in laravel 5

Question

I am new to laravel. I am working on a project with a lots of datetime values that would be display on the UI. In Code Igniter I use to create a function like below and put in a helper directory and make available in my app.

function datetime_to_text($datetime){
    return date('j F Y, g:i a', strtotime($datetime));
}

How can I make such a function available globally in laravel 5 (Able to access in both my views and controllers)

Answer 1

Datetimes in Laravel are converted to Carbon objects.

Carbon is a wonderful library.

By default, created_at , updated_at , and deleted_at are automatically converted for you. If you have other DATETIME columns in your table, you simply need to add them to the $dates array in your Eloquent model:

class User {
    protected $dates = ['logged_in_at'];
}

http://laravel.com/docs/5.1/eloquent-mutators#date-mutators

Now when you echo $object->created_at , it calls the Carbon __toString() method. You can set a default format with:

Carbon::setToStringFormat('j F Y, g:i a');

Or you can easily format things with

echo $object->created_at->format('j F Y, g:i a');

http://carbon.nesbot.com/docs/#api-formatting

Answer 2

It's maybe helpful for CodeIgniter experts:

You can create a file in app/Helpers/ (with making Helpers directory)

like: app/Helpers/ HelperClass.php

<?php
namespace App\Helpers;

use Carbon\Carbon;

class HelperClass{

    public static function updatedOn($updated_at)
    {
        return 'Last updated '. $updated_at->diffForHumans();
    }
}

Now you've to add this HelperClass in config/app.php

'aliases' => [
   ...,
   'HelperClass' => 'App\Libraries\HelperClass'
]

Now just call in your view page:

<div class="col-md-12">
   {!! HelperClass::updatedOn($data->updated_at) !!}
</div>

Output like: Last updated 5 minutes ago.