datetime - php "countdown til" and "since time" GMT UTC time function -

i'm working function found this, i'm trying make work gmt utc timestamp:

edit: maybe issue how i'm "converting" user input time gmt...

i doing

$the_user_input_date = strtotime('2011-07-20t01:13:00'); $utctime = gmdate('y-m-d h:i:s',$the_user_input_date); 

does gmdate('y-m-d h:i:s',$the_user_input_date); not "convert" gmt? format it? maybe thats issue.

here's times can supply like:

//local time in gmt 2011-07-20t01:13:00  //future time in gmt 2011-07-20t19:49:39 

i'm trying work like:

    started 36 mins ago     start in 33 mins     start in 6 hrs 21 mins     start in 4 days 4 hrs 33 mins 

here's im working far:

edit: new php code im working with, seems add 10 hours on date. ideas?  updated here:  function ago($from)  {   $to = time();    $to = (($to === null) ? (time()) : ($to));   $to = ((is_int($to)) ? ($to) : (strtotime($to)));   $from = ((is_int($from)) ? ($from) : (strtotime($from)));    $units = array   (    "year"   => 29030400, // seconds in year   (12 months)    "month"  => 2419200,  // seconds in month  (4 weeks)    "week"   => 604800,   // seconds in week   (7 days)    "day"    => 86400,    // seconds in day    (24 hours)    "hour"   => 3600,     // seconds in hour  (60 minutes)    "minute" => 60,       // seconds in minute (60 seconds)    "second" => 1         // 1 second   );    $diff = abs($from - $to);   $suffix = (($from > $to) ? ("from now") : ("ago"));    foreach($units $unit => $mult)    if($diff >= $mult)    {     $and = (($mult != 1) ? ("") : ("and "));     $output .= ", ".$and.intval($diff / $mult)." ".$unit.((intval($diff / $mult) == 1) ? ("") : ("s"));     $diff -= intval($diff / $mult) * $mult;    }   $output .= " ".$suffix;   $output = substr($output, strlen(", "));    return $output;  } 

@jason

i tried suggested here:

function ago($dateto)     {       $datetime1 = new datetime( $dateto);       $datetime2 = new datetime();       $interval = $datetime1->diff($datetime2);       // print_r($interval);        $format = '';       if ($interval->h) {               $format .= ' %h ' . ($interval->h == 1 ? 'hour' : 'hours');       }       if ($interval->i) {               $format .= ' %i ' . ($interval->i == 1 ? 'minute' : 'minutes');       }       // more logic each interval        if ($format) {               echo $interval->format($format), ' ago';       }       else {               echo 'now';       }     } 

it seems add 10 hours on time.

any ideas going on?

maybe error lies how i'm saving target time? when submits time converted , stored this

the user submitted time start out looking local time: 07/20/2011 11:00 pm

then:

$time = mysql_real_escape_string($_post['time']);  $the_date = strtotime($time);  //make user input time gmt time $utctime = gmdate('y/m/d h:i:s',$the_date);  $query = "insert $table (time) values ('$utctime');"; mysql_query($query); 

provided have access php >= 5.3 i'd recommend datetime::diff(). dateinterval returned gives parts need display has own methods, such format().

here's sample give idea. there more complete samples in comments of php documentation links.

<?php $datetime1 = new datetime('2011-07-20'); $datetime2 = new datetime(); $interval = $datetime1->diff($datetime2); // print_r($interval);  $format = ''; if ($interval->h) {         $format .= ' %h ' . ($interval->h == 1 ? 'hour' : 'hours'); } if ($interval->i) {         $format .= ' %i ' . ($interval->i == 1 ? 'minute' : 'minutes'); } // more logic each interval  if ($format) {         echo $interval->format($format), ' ago'; } else {         echo 'now'; } 

it outputs (on system):

22 hours 10 minutes ago