Birkly templates let you output date (and optionally time) fields in a chosen format—e.g. “January 5, 2025” or “2025-01-05”—using format strings.
To format a date in a template, use the date field with a format string: e.g. { date "F j, Y" } for “January 5, 2025” or { published_date "Y-m-d" } for “2025-01-05”. The format uses placeholders: F = full month name, j = day without leading zero, Y = 4-digit year, m = month number, d = day with leading zero. The same idea applies to DateTime fields for time (e.g. H hour, i minute). Check your Birkly version for the exact syntax (e.g. { date_field "format" }).
Beginner
Dates in the CMS are stored in a standard way (e.g. 2025-01-05). On the website you often want them to look different: “January 5, 2025” or “5 Jan 2025” or “05.01.2025”. You control this with a format string in the template.
Basic syntax
- Write the date field name, then a space and a format string in quotes:
{ date "F j, Y" }. - Replace
datewith your field key if it’s different (e.g.published_date,event_date). - Inside a loop,
{ date "F j, Y" }uses the current entry’s date.
Common formats (examples)
| What you want | Format string | Example output | |---------------|---------------|----------------| | Full date, readable | F j, Y | January 5, 2025 | | Short month | M j, Y | Jan 5, 2025 | | Numbers only (ISO-style) | Y-m-d | 2025-01-05 | | European style | d.m.Y | 05.01.2025 | | With weekday | l, F j, Y | Sunday, January 5, 2025 |
Example: blog post date
<time datetime="{ date "Y-m-d" }">{ date "F j, Y" }</time>datetime="2025-01-05"is good for accessibility and SEO (machine-readable).- The visible text can be “January 5, 2025”.
Example: event with time
If the field is a DateTime (date + time), you can include time placeholders:
<span>{ event_date "F j, Y \a\t g:i A" }</span>That might output “January 5, 2025 at 2:30 PM”. Exact support depends on your engine; see Advanced for placeholders.
What the letters mean (quick reference)
- Y — 4-digit year (2025)
- F — Full month name (January)
- M — Short month (Jan)
- j — Day of month, no leading zero (5)
- d — Day of month, with leading zero (05)
- l — Full weekday name (Sunday) — if supported
- H / i / s — Hour (24h), minute, second — for time
- g / i / A — Hour (12h), minute, AM/PM — if supported
Your engine may follow PHP-style date format; see the table in Advanced for a fuller list.
Advanced Users
Syntax
- Pattern:
{ date_field_name "format_string" }. The format string is usually PHP-style (date()/strftime()-like tokens). - DateTime fields: Same pattern; add time tokens (H, i, s, g, A, etc.) to include time in the output.
Common format characters (PHP-style)
| Character | Meaning | Example | |-----------|----------|--------| | Y | 4-digit year | 2025 | | y | 2-digit year | 25 | | F | Full month name | January | | M | Short month name | Jan | | m | Month number, leading zero | 01 | | n | Month number, no leading zero | 1 | | d | Day of month, leading zero | 05 | | j | Day of month, no leading zero | 5 | | l | Full weekday name | Sunday | | D | Short weekday name | Sun | | H | Hour 24h, leading zero | 14 | | i | Minutes | 30 | | s | Seconds | 00 | | g | Hour 12h, no leading zero | 2 | | A | AM/PM | PM |
Examples
| Format | Output | |--------|--------| | F j, Y | January 5, 2025 | | M j, Y | Jan 5, 2025 | | Y-m-d | 2025-01-05 (ISO date) | | d.m.Y | 05.01.2025 | | m/d/Y | 01/05/2025 | | l, F j, Y | Sunday, January 5, 2025 | | H:i | 14:30 | | g:i A | 2:30 PM | | F j, Y \a\t g:i A | January 5, 2025 at 2:30 PM |
Escaping literal text
In some engines, characters that are not format tokens must be escaped (e.g. \a\t for “at”). Check the engine docs.
Time zones
Stored dates may be in UTC or server time. Output is typically in the same; time zone conversion (e.g. to user’s local time) may require client-side JavaScript or server-side time zone handling depending on your setup.
Relative dates
“2 days ago” or “next week” are usually not built into the template language. Implement via a custom helper or client-side script if needed.