README.md

Chronos

For a short introduction, see my lightning talk at the Meteor Meetup in Amsterdam about Chronos.

Installation

$ meteor add remcoder:chronos

API overview

• Chronos.date - a reactive replacement for new Date()
• Chronos.now - a reactive replacement for Date.now()
• Chronos.moment - a reactive replacement for moment()
• Chronos.update - trigger reactive updates with a single call
• Chronos.Timer - a simple reactive timer

Chronos.date(interval)

A reactive replacement for new Date. It returns a Date object and triggers reactive updates. Optionally pass an interval in milliseconds. The default is 1000ms (1 second).

Usage:

<template name="foo">
   current time: {{currentTime}}
</template>

Template.foo.helpers({
   currentTime : function() {
       return Chronos.date(); // updates every second
   }
});

Chronos.now(interval)

A reactive replacement for Date.now. It returns the milliseconds since the start of the epoch and triggers reactive updates. Optionally pass an interval in milliseconds. The default is 1000ms (1 second).

Usage:

<template name="foo">
   millis: {{millis}}
</template>

Template.foo.helpers({
   millis : function() {
       return Chronos.now(); // updates every second
   }
});

Chronos.moment(args...)

A reactive replacement for the global function moment() as provided by moment.js. This reactive version will trigger live updates, for live timestamps and such. You'll need to include moment.js yourself (and the reason is that there are several different versions of momentjs on Atmosphere).

Usage:

// call with the same params as moment()
Chronos.moment(/* arguments */); 

Example template + helper:

<template name="foo">
		<div>time spent: {{timeSpent}}</div>
</template>

var start = new Date();

Template.foo.helpers({
		timeSpent : function() {
    		return Chronos.moment(start).fromNow();
		}
});

Example with autorun:

	var timestamp = new Date();
	
	Tracker.autorun(function() {
		// prints how long ago the timestamp was made, every second
		console.log(Chronos.moment(timestamp).fromNow());
	});

Note: this uses a Chronos.Timer under the hood. This timer is started automatically when you call .liveMoment

Chronos.update(interval)

When called from inside a Blaze helper or other reactive context, it will setup a timer once and make the context dependent on the timer. What this means is that for example the helper will we re-run every time the timer updates.

Usage:

// make context live updating. defaults to an interval of 1000m.
Chronos.update(interval);

It returns the Chronos.Timer that drives the updates.

Example template + helper:

<template name="foo">
	<div>random number: {{randomNumber}}</div>
</template>

Template.foo.helpers({
	
	// returns a random number between 0 and 10, every second
	randomNumber : function() {
		Chronos.update();
		return Math.round( Math.random() * 10 );
	}
});

Example with autorun:

// this will create counter and logs it every second
var count = 0;
	
Tracker.autorun(function() {
	Chronos.update();
	console.log(count);
	count++;
});

Note: this uses a Chronos.Timer under the hood. This timer is started automatically when you call .update

Chronos.Timer()

usage:

// create new timer. defaults to an interval of 1000ms
var timer = new Chronos.Timer(interval);

The timer exposes the time property, which is a ReactiveVar and it holds the current time. Getting the time value is reactive so it will trigger re-runs whenever the timer produces an update.

timer.time.get();

Example template + helper:

<template name="timer">
	<div class="timer">{{time}}</div>
</template>

var timer = new Chronos.Timer(100);

Template.timer.helpers({
	
	// counts from 0 to 10 in 10 seconds
	time: function () {
	          return ((timer.time.get() // get the current time
	          / 1000)                   // convert ms to seconds
	          % 10)						// reset every 10 seconds
	          .toFixed(0);				// drop any decimals
	}	
});

Example with autorun:

// prints the current time every 2 seconds
var timer = new Chronos.Timer(2000);
	
Tracker.autorun(function() {
	console.log(timer.time.get());
});
	
timer.start();

Chronos.Timer.start()

Starts the timer (by kicking off a setInterval loop).

Usage:

timer.start();

Chronos.Timer.stop()

Stops the timer.

Usage:

timer.stop();

License

MIT License

Changelog

• 0.5.0
  • add new method Chronos.now(), which is a reactive replacement for Date.now()
  • fixed a build error which prevented Chronos to work on windows (there was a colon in a filename)
  • renamed some methods to stay closer to their non-reactive counterparts (with aliases in place to prevent breakage):
    • Chronos.liveMoment() -> Chronos.moment()
    • Chronos.liveUpdate() -> Chronos.update()
    • Chronos.currentTime() -> Chronos.date()
• 0.4.1
  • fixed regression where the momentjs package from Atmosphere didn't work anymore
• 0.4.0
  • fixed a bug causing a ReferenceError when liveMoment is called and moment is imported as a module (#10) thx to dylanmcgowan
• 0.3.1
  • fixed a bug where destroy() would sometimes be called twice, resulting in a TypeError (#7) thx to MichelFloyd
• 0.3.0
  • added currentTime() a reactive replacement for new Date
  • no longer throws an exception when used outside a reactive context.
• 0.2.x
  • bugfixes
• 0.2.0
  • Instantiating a Chronos.Timer will not start the timer immediately anymore.