Include post date in the Reviews tab

[anonymized_11892634]

Currently, the date of each review is not displayed in the main "Reviews" tab. This can be misleading for plugins which have not been reviewed/updated recently. It also seems like very useful information for adding context to older/newer versions of the plugin which might have enhancements/bugs historically.

As an example, the [WP-LESS plugin](​https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-less) has not been updated in a long time. However if you look at the [Reviews tab](​https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-less/#reviews) it appears that everything is working with the current version of WordPress. If you inspect the reviews more closely, they were actually left [several years ago](​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/well-written-and-maintenance-free/) using old versions of WordPress.

Displaying a date next to the reviews adds a lot of context to the user's decision making process.

Just to confirm, I have no issues with the WP-LESS plugin. I've never even used it. The plugins was just the first one I found as a good example :)

[obenland]

Hi @philclothier, welcome to Meta Trac!

Let's start with some Design feedback, @mapk do you have thoughts on this?

[mapk]

This is a great idea from @philclothier - thanks for the ticket!

While we're working on this, it might be good to add the version number of the plugin when the review was posted as well. This would be similar to the App Store.

[anonymized_11892634]

Hi guys 👋

@mapk good thinking!

Maybe the space under the avatar could be used for any extra meta from the review? I guess there's not much space if it is a short review though.

[mapk]

Replying to philclothier:

Maybe the space under the avatar could be used for any extra meta from the review? I guess there's not much space if it is a short review though.

That might be too dispersed. What about adding it to the author line like this?

[anonymized_11892634]

Looks good to me! 👍

[obenland]

I feel like there's a lot going on in that screenshot. Do we use pipes anywhere else in the directory?

What do you think about moving the stars up left of the heading, and then have the entire post meta be in gray?

I'm also not sure the version number makes things clearer here, my first thought was that it depicts revisions of that comment. Maybe we could skip adding that in this iteration?

[mapk]

Replying to obenland:

I feel like there's a lot going on in that screenshot. Do we use pipes anywhere else in the directory?

I'm not sure we do. We can remove those.

What do you think about moving the stars up left of the heading, and then have the entire post meta be in gray?

Here's what that might look like.

I'm also not sure the version number makes things clearer here, my first thought was that it depicts revisions of that comment. Maybe we could skip adding that in this iteration?

I liked the version number, but am open to leaving it out for now. I'm really not sure how important it is, or whether it's useful or not.

[obenland]

You'd prefer to keep the blue link color for the author?

[tellyworth]

The version number seems like it'd be a very useful addition if it's done right. Is there a way we can make its meaning clear?

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to tellyworth:

The version number seems like it'd be a very useful addition if it's done right. Is there a way we can make its meaning clear?

There was an older ticket for this: #152. It has a patch that displays the version number in the sidebar, along with the WordPress version​.

The ticket was wontfixed 5 months ago. Per @Clorith, the version field would likely end up being another field users ignore or fill in wrong. WordPress version field has also been removed since then, see #3502.

Related: #1181

[SergeyBiryukov]

#4449 was marked as a duplicate.

[ck3lee]

attachment:3717.diff​ and screenshot are based on @mapk's latest design. Hope this works. Yeah, having the dates for each review definitely helps here.

@SergeyBiryukov, please review when you have a chance. Thank you.

[dd32]

Replying to ck3lee:

attachment:3717.diff​ and screenshot are based on @mapk's latest design. Hope this works. Yeah, having the dates for each review definitely helps here.

@SergeyBiryukov, please review when you have a chance. Thank you.

I like where this has gone, the only thing I've picked up on is that date_i18n() should be used in place of gmdate() so we've got localised months on international sites.
IIRC changing the markup here doesn't affect the markup delivered through the API to WordPress plugin info iframes, but that should be checked prior to committing this.

[ck3lee]

Thank you for your feedback, @dd32.

Uploaded attachment:3717.1.diff​ with date_i18n().
Please review. I hope this works.

[dd32]

As it turns out we already display dates on the Reviews within the wp-admin dashboard.

I've attached a screenshot of that for reference here.

[dd32]

In 9019:

Plugin Directory: Show the review date for reviews.

Props ck3lee, mapk, philclothier.
Fixes #3717.

[dd32]

In 9020:

Plugin Directory: Cache bump after [9019].

See #3717.

[anonymized_11892634]

Thanks @dd32 and everyone involved! 🙌

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 9127:

Plugin Directory: Use locale's default date format when displaying a date for reviews.

Hardcoded F j, Y is not suitable for locales using a different format.

See #3717.