Last Modified Timestamp

FAQ

How to add the last modified time to my page or post?

This plugin does not change the public facing appearance of your website, but gives you a few ways to add this if you wish.

1. Using the [last-modified] shortcode. See below.
2. Using template functions in your theme or plugin. See below.

How to provide the last modified time to search engines?

The best way to provide the last modified timestamp to search engines is by using a plugin to add an XML sitemap for your website. This is a special kind of document which provides various information to search engines about all the content on your website, including when each was last modified. Many SEO plugins provide include this functionality with them, but there are many standalone plugins for this as well. This allows search engines to reference a single file (which is automatically kept up to date for you by the plugin) to know exactly what content has changed on your whole website since it was last indexed, rather than recrawling every page.

This plugin may be used to display the last modified date and time to a reader on your website, but it is not intended as a tool for SEO.

How to use the [last-modified] shortcode?

[last-modified] Returns the last modified timestamp in this format date seperator time.

Attributes (all optional)

datef – specify a date format using the PHP date format.

timef – specify a time format using the PHP date format.

sep – specify the character/text you want to use to separate the date & time.

format – define the output format using placeholders %date%, %time%, and %sep%. Other text can be used as well.

How to change the outputted date/time format?

By default, the plugin mimicks the time & date formats used in the same context (ie: admin tables, publish box) that WordPress uses.

As mentioned above, LMT uses PHP date format strings for the formatting of the outputted date & time.

To customize the output with a shortcode, use the attributes as described above.

To customize the output in an admin context, a filter may be used.

• last_modified_timestamp_defaults – allows default values to be filtered. Shortcode attributes override defaults when present, otherwise there are defaults for shortcode output as well. Passes 1 parameter (array).

For example, if you wanted to change the time format in the admin messages that appear after a post is modified to a 24hr format with leading zeros, add this to your theme’s functions.php:

function my_lmt_defaults( $d ) {

    $d['contexts']['messages']['timef'] = 'H:i';

    return $d;
}
add_filter('last_modified_timestamp_defaults','my_lmt_defaults');

Template Tags

Models the function naming convention used by WordPress for get_the_content / the_content and similar functions.

• get_the_last_modified_timestamp() – returns timestamp.
• the_last_modified_timestamp() – displays/echos the timestamp.

These functions accept 2 arguments, both are optional:

• $context (string) to output formatted according to a defined context (ie: admin messages, posts table, etc.)
• $override (array) using this will override any defaults that are specified here, but output can still be overriden at final output.
  Example array structure is: array('datef' => 'M j, Y', 'timef' => 'g:i', 'sep' => '→', 'format' => '%date% %sep% %time%')