Localize Time

This WordPress plugin adds the [localize_time] shortcode. The shortcode allows an author to enter a date and time in any timezone. The shortcode displays the original time with timezone, followed by the same time in the user’s timezone, formatted correctly for the user’s locale. This is useful for announcing live events, e.g. a live online streaming event, to widely dispersed audiences.

The date and time to be displayed are entered as the shortcode’s content, i.e. between the [localize_time] and [/localize_time] tags. The time can be specified in almost any format that’s recognizable as a date and time.

The shortcode takes the following options:

• tz – the timezone the shortcode’s content is in. If this option is omitted, it defaults to the site’s timezone. Timezones are specified in any format recognized by PHP’s DateTimeZone.
• fmt – a format string specifying how the original time should be displayed. If omitted, it defaults to the site’s date format followed by the site’s time format followed by the timezone. To output the original time exactly as entered (with the timezone), specify fmt="orig". Or you can enter a format string using the same codes that are used on WordPress’s General Settings tab. See full documentation on date / time format strings here.
• before_local – the string to precede the local time. Defaults to ‘ (‘
• after_local – the string to follow the local time. Defaults to ‘)’

Examples

Below are examples of using the shortcode. For these examples, the site’s timezone is set to America/New_York (EST-5EDT) and the user is in the America/Los_Angeles (PST-8PDT) timezone.

• Local time is in a different year and month from original time: [localize_time]1/1/2014 1:00 am[/localize_time] outputs: January 1, 2014 1:00 am EST (12/31/2013, 10:00:00 PM PST)

• Specify a time in timezone different from the site’s: [localize_time tz=”Europe/Paris” ]July 14, 2014 19:00[/localize_time] outputs: July 14, 2014 7:00 pm CEST (7/14/2014, 10:00:00 AM PDT)

• Specify a format for the original time: [localize_time fmt=”m/d/Y g:i A T”]June 14, 2014 6:30 AM[/localize_time] outputs: 06/14/2014 6:30 AM EDT (6/14/2014, 3:30:00 AM PDT)

• Specify a time in the same timezone as the user: [localize_time tz=”PST”]3pm Nov. 1, 2014[/localize_time] outputs: November 1, 2014 3:00 pm PDT

Note that the display of the local time varies by timezone and browser.