What is @js-temporal/polyfill?
@js-temporal/polyfill is a polyfill for the Temporal API, which is a modern date/time API for JavaScript. It provides a more comprehensive and accurate way to handle dates and times compared to the built-in Date object.
What are @js-temporal/polyfill's main functionalities?
Creating Temporal Objects
This feature allows you to create various Temporal objects such as PlainDateTime, PlainDate, PlainTime, etc. The code sample demonstrates creating a PlainDateTime object representing the current date and time in ISO format.
const { Temporal } = require('@js-temporal/polyfill');
const now = Temporal.Now.plainDateTimeISO();
console.log(now.toString());
Date Arithmetic
Temporal makes it easy to perform date arithmetic. The code sample shows how to add one day to the current date to get tomorrow's date.
const { Temporal } = require('@js-temporal/polyfill');
const today = Temporal.Now.plainDateISO();
const tomorrow = today.add({ days: 1 });
console.log(tomorrow.toString());
Time Zones
Temporal provides robust support for time zones. The code sample demonstrates how to get the current date and time in a specific time zone (America/New_York).
const { Temporal } = require('@js-temporal/polyfill');
const now = Temporal.Now.zonedDateTimeISO();
const timeZone = Temporal.TimeZone.from('America/New_York');
const nyTime = now.withTimeZone(timeZone);
console.log(nyTime.toString());
Duration and Intervals
Temporal allows you to work with durations and intervals. The code sample shows how to calculate the duration between two dates.
const { Temporal } = require('@js-temporal/polyfill');
const start = Temporal.PlainDate.from('2023-01-01');
const end = Temporal.PlainDate.from('2023-12-31');
const duration = end.since(start);
console.log(duration.toString());
Other packages similar to @js-temporal/polyfill
moment
Moment.js is a widely-used library for parsing, validating, manipulating, and formatting dates. While it is very powerful, it is also quite large and has been deprecated in favor of more modern solutions like Temporal.
date-fns
date-fns provides a comprehensive set of functions for working with dates in JavaScript. It is modular, allowing you to import only the functions you need, which can result in smaller bundle sizes compared to Moment.js.
luxon
Luxon is a modern library for working with dates and times in JavaScript. It is built on top of the native Intl API and provides a more modern API compared to Moment.js. Luxon is similar to Temporal in its approach to handling dates and times.
Temporal Polyfill
This polyfill was kicked off by some of the champions of the Temporal proposal.
The goal is to be ready for production use when the Temporal proposal reaches Stage 4, although like with all OSS work progress is dependent on contributors.
We're eagerly welcoming to contributors who want to help build and maintain this polyfill.
PRs are always welcome!
Note that this polyfill is not affiliated with TC39. Links to other polyfills can be found here.
This polyfill is compatible with Node.js 14 or later.
Roadmap
Bug Reports and Feedback
If you think you've found a bug in the Temporal API itself (not the implementation in this polyfill), please file an issue in the tc39/proposal-temporal issue tracker issue tracker.
If you've found a bug in this polyfill—meaning that the implementation here doesn't match the Temporal spec—please file an issue in this repo's issue tracker.
Documentation
Reference documentation and examples for the Temporal API can be found here.
A cookbook to help you get started and learn the ins and outs of Temporal is available here
If you find a bug in the documentation, please file a bug over in the tc39/proposal-temporal issue tracker issue tracker.
Note that the Temporal documentation is in the process of being migrated to MDN.
You can track the progress of the MDN migration here.
Usage
To install:
$ npm install @js-temporal/polyfill
CJS Usage:
const { Temporal, Intl, toTemporalInstant } = require('@js-temporal/polyfill');
Date.prototype.toTemporalInstant = toTemporalInstant;
Import the polyfill as an ES6 module:
import { Temporal, Intl, toTemporalInstant } from '@js-temporal/polyfill';
Date.prototype.toTemporalInstant = toTemporalInstant;
Note that this polyfill currently does not install a global Temporal
object like a real implementation will.
This behavior avoids hiding the global Temporal object in environments where a real Temporal implementation is present.
See this issue for more background on this decision.
Once JS engines start shipping with Temporal, we may decide to change this behavior to match built-in behavior more closely.
See #2 to provide feedback or track this issue.
This polyfill ships ES2020 code for both CJS and ESM bundles - if your
environment does not support ES2020, then please make sure to transpile the
content of this package along with the rest of your code.
Contributing / Help Wanted
We're eagerly welcoming to contributors who want to help build and maintain this polyfill.
PRs are always welcome!