formatDateForDisplay

Renders a date the way this person reads dates, without ever hiding the date.

Tuleap lets a person pick absolute or relative dates, and the reason for offering it is also the reason it is dangerous: "3 dagen geleden" against a statutory term is a reading hazard. A handler cannot work out from "3 days ago" whether a Woo request is on day 25 or day 29 of a 28 day term.

So the rule is not "relative or absolute". A relative date always carries its absolute date in the accessible name and in the tooltip. The exact date is one hover, one focus or one screen reader away, always.

Usage

import { formatDateForDisplay } from '@conduction/nextcloud-vue'

const shown = formatDateForDisplay(case.dueAt, { mode: 'relative', locale: 'nl-NL' })

<time :datetime="shown.iso" :title="shown.title" :aria-label="shown.accessibleName">
  {{ shown.text }}
</time>

Always render all three. In absolute mode they are the same date, so a caller writes one template and cannot accidentally drop the absolute date in relative mode.

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
mode	'absolute' | 'relative'	'absolute'	How this person reads dates.
locale	String	the browser's	BCP 47 locale.
now	Date | Number	Date.now()	What counts as now. For tests.
dateOptions	Object	{ dateStyle: 'medium', timeStyle: 'short' }	Intl.DateTimeFormat options for the absolute form.

What it returns

Key	In absolute mode	In relative mode
text	The date	"3 days ago"
title	The date	The date
accessibleName	The date	"3 days ago, 11 Sept 2026, 12:00"
iso	The ISO string, for a datetime attribute	The same

A value that is not a date answers null, rather than rendering "Invalid Date" into a column.

Next

Let each person choose their mode with useUserPreferences, under USER_PREFERENCE_KEYS.dateDisplay.