How can I make a `weeks_ago` helper?

Question

How can I make a helper that will tell me how many weeks ago (rounded down) with rails? It could be based of the time_ago_in_words helper however I'd want it to return: "last week" then afterwards just two weeks ago, three weeks ago, etc...

Answer 1

Try this:

def my_time_ago_in_words(from_time, include_seconds = false)
  to_time   = Time.now
  weeks_ago = ((to_time - from_time)/1.week).abs
  [nil, "last week", "two weeks ago", "three weeks ago"][weeks_ago] || 
      distance_of_time_in_words(from_time, to_time, include_seconds)
end

This function will behave the same as time_ago_in_words. When the from_time is between 1 - 3 week ago, this will print last week, two weeks ago, three weeks ago otherwise it will print the usual.

Answer 2

That would be a nice patch to distance_of_time_in_words:

http://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4cbb9db0a5ff65b0a626a5b043331abefd89e717/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/date_helper.rb#L68-103

Answer 3

Also, you can write custom time descriptions for the other levels (day, month, year).

http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/392707640/the-more-you-know-custom-time-descriptions