Last Modified

[Jeff Thies]

Any thoughts on "Last Modified Date" for web pages.

Is the format or associated markup important?

Something like this OK?
<div>Last Modified: Mon Jul 12, 2004</div>

In as much as this is also sent in the header, I would think that even a
client side way of adding this would suffice. (But I'll probably do it
server side)

Jeff

 

[Sam Hughes]

Any thoughts on "Last Modified Date" for web pages.

Is the format or associated markup important?

Something like this OK?
<div>Last Modified: Mon Jul 12, 2004</div>

Dates look so much cooler when you don't abbreviate. I would use "Last
modified on Monday, July 12, 2004." Actually, I would drop the Monday,
perhaps using "Last modified on July 12, 2004." However, I would think
that visitors are more interested in the last time you had your content
updated, rather than general modifications to the file (such as linking
to a new CSS document). That's why I use "Last updated on November 11,
2006," and I would only change the date when changes occur which affect
the user.

 

[Jeff Thies]

@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net:




Dates look so much cooler when you don't abbreviate. I would use "Last
modified on Monday, July 12, 2004." Actually, I would drop the Monday,
perhaps using "Last modified on July 12, 2004."

I like that!

However, I would think

that visitors are more interested in the last time you had your content
updated, rather than general modifications to the file (such as linking
to a new CSS document). That's why I use "Last updated on November 11,
2006," and I would only change the date when changes occur which affect
the user.

I've already worked this out by only changing the file's mtime when the
content changes, not when the template changes.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

[Toby Inkster]

<div>Last Modified: Mon Jul 12, 2004</div>

<div>Last Modified: <abbr title="Monday">Mon</abbr> <abbr
title="July">Jul</abbr> 12, 2004.</div>

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Any thoughts on "Last Modified Date" for web pages.

They are wrong so often that they are unreliable. At least such text
should not _look like_ the usual JavaScript-generated stuff that relies
on what the server sends (which is almost always correct _in a sense_,
but not necessarily the right sense).

Is the format or associated markup important?

The format is relevant to human beings that may have difficulties in
understanding different date formats, such as 12/2/2004.

Something like this OK?
<div>Last Modified: Mon Jul 12, 2004</div>

I see little reason to include the day of the week or to use a three-
letter code for the month, instead of a month name.

I see many reasons to use consistently ISO 8601 conformant notation like
2004-08-12. To begin with, most users are only interested in the year, so
it should coeme first. Second, the format is recognizable as a date
notation, and it is virtually certainly unambiguous - no question about
which is month and which is day of month.

In very special cases (a very frequently changing page), one might even
include the time. Then make sure the time zone is expressed, e.g.
2004-08-12 14:15:00Z
(technically it should be 2004-08-12T14:15:00Z according to ISO 8601, but
this notation is fairly hard to read and very rarely used).

In as much as this is also sent in the header, I would think that
even a client side way of adding this would suffice. (But I'll
probably do it server side)

If you use client side scripting to generate it from an HTTP header,
at least make the script emit the entire string, instead of the common
mistake of doing something that results in
Last Modified:
when scripting is off.

 

[Jim Higson]

you can use Javascript to format dates+times according to the user's locale.

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

you can use Javascript to format dates+times according to the user's
locale.

.... to create some absurd humor, right? Like

Last modified on 12. heinäkuuta 2004.

The date format for dates actually shown as part of a page should, of
course, match the language of the document, not the user's locale (or
"user's locale", which might in fact be just the browser's default
locale). It should thus be either a language-dependent notation or a
language-independent numeric notation (2004-07-12).