A page's PHP asks for the date all the time: to stamp a record, to say how old a comment is, to write down what happened. These helpers give "now" in the application's timezone, read a date whatever form it arrives in, put an age into words and keep a log of the application's own - plain functions, loaded on every request.

Now and today

The example freezes the clock first, so it shows the same on every day it is read - what a test does too. Without the freeze, now is the real moment.

<?php

  padNowFreeze ( '2026-10-05 14:30:00' );

  $now       = padNow ( 'l j F Y, H:i' );
  $today     = padToday ( 'Y-m-d H:i:s' );
  $christmas = padDateParse ( '2026-12-25' )->format ( 'l j F' );
  $nextWeek  = padDateParse ( '+1 week' )->format ( 'Y-m-d' );
  $nothing   = ( padDateParse ( '2026-02-30' ) === NULL )
             ? 'NULL' : 'a date';

?>

<p>Now: {$now}</p>
<p>Today: {$today}</p>
<p>Christmas: {$christmas}</p>
<p>A week from now: {$nextWeek}</p>
<p>30 February: {$nothing}</p>

• A number is a Unix timestamp, as the date pipe reads it; text is read the way PHP's DateTime reads it. A timestamp and text without a zone are in the application's zone; a zone that was given is kept.
• A date that does not exist - 2026-02-30, which PHP itself would make 2 March - is no date, nor are NULL, '' and booleans: padDateParse answers NULL for them, never an error.
• $padTimezone is read when a function is called, so a page can set it for itself.

Freezing the clock

padNowFreeze ( '2026-10-05 14:30:00' ) fixes now for the rest of the request: padNow, padToday, padAgo, the time stamp of padLog, and text like tomorrow or +1 week given to padDateParse all count from that moment. A test gets the same answer on every run, and a page can be looked at as it will be on another day. padNowFreeze () lets the clock run again.

How long ago

padAgo says the age of a moment in words, and the ago pipe does the same in a template: {$posted | ago}.

<?php

  padNowFreeze ( '2026-10-05 14:30:00' );

  $comments = [
    [ 'author' => 'Ann',  'posted' => '2026-10-05 14:29:55' ],
    [ 'author' => 'Bob',  'posted' => '2026-10-05 14:12:00' ],
    [ 'author' => 'Cleo', 'posted' => '2026-10-04 09:00:00' ],
    [ 'author' => 'Dirk', 'posted' => '2026-09-20 18:00:00' ],
    [ 'author' => 'Eve',  'posted' => '2025-06-01' ]
  ];

  $deadline = padAgo ( '2026-10-08 12:00' );

?>

<ul>
{comments}
  <li>{$author} - {$posted | ago}</li>
{/comments}
</ul>
<p>The deadline is {$deadline}.</p>

• Under ten seconds is just now, then seconds, minutes and hours. From a day on the calendar counts: the day before today is yesterday whatever the hour, then days, weeks, months and years.
• A moment still to come is said the other way round: in 3 days, tomorrow.
• A second argument - padAgo ( $start, $end ), or {$start | ago($end)} - counts from that moment instead of now. An empty value answers nothing.

Logging

padLog appends one line to DATA/logs/<application>/<Y-m-d>.log: the time, the level, the message and the context as JSON. The levels are those of PSR-3 - debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical, alert and emergency - and {name} in the message is filled from the context.

<?php

  padNowFreeze ( '2026-10-05 14:30:00' );

  padLog ( 'Order {order} paid by {customer}', 'info',
           [ 'order' => 1042, 'customer' => 'Ann' ] );

  $log   = DATA . "logs/$padApp/2026-10-05.log";
  $lines = file ( $log, FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES );
  $line  = end ( $lines );

?>

{$line}

2026-10-05 14:30:00 INFO Order 1042 paid by Ann {"order":1042,"customer":"Ann"}

• One call is always one line: a newline in the message is written \n.
• A message that is no text is written as JSON; a Throwable in the context as its class, message, file and line.
• A log line never stops the page: a disk that refuses the write is answered FALSE, not an exception. An unknown level is an error, the author's mistake.
• The engine's own errors go to PHP's error log; this log is for what the application wants to remember - a payment, a login, a failed import.