Store the datetime as a jQuery data object instead of re-parsing on every refresh

index.html

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
     <script src="test/test_helpers.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
     <script type="text/javascript">
       jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
+        prepareDynamicDates();
         $('abbr.timeago').timeago();
 
         $("#prog_date").text(jQuery.timeago(new Date()));
@@ -54,8 +55,9 @@
         timestamps (e.g. "4 minutes ago" or "about 1 day ago").  <a href="jquery.timeago.js">Download</a>, view
         the examples, and enjoy.
       </p>
+      <noscript><p class="example"><strong>Turn on javascript, loser!</strong></p></noscript>
       <p class="example">
-        You opened this page <abbr class="loaded timeago">sometime before now <span class="help">(turn on javascript, loser)</span></abbr>. <span class="help">(This will update every minute. Wait for it.)</span>
+        You opened this page <abbr class="loaded timeago">when you opened the page</abbr>. <span class="help">(This will update every minute. Wait for it.)</span>
       </p>
       <p class="example">
         This page was last modified <abbr class="modified timeago">sometime before now [browser might not support document.lastModified]</abbr>.

jquery.timeago.js

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
  * timeago: a jQuery plugin, version: 0.7.2 (2009-07-30)
- * @requires jQuery v1.2 or later
+ * @requires jQuery v1.2.3 or later
  *
  * Timeago is a jQuery plugin that makes it easy to support automatically
  * updating fuzzy timestamps (e.g. "4 minutes ago" or "about 1 day ago").
@@ -85,8 +85,8 @@
       return new Date(s);
     },
     datetime: function(elem) {
-      var that = $(elem);
-      return $t.parse(that.is('time') ? that.attr('datetime') : that.attr('title'));
+      var iso8601 = $(elem).is('time') ? $(elem).attr('datetime') : $(elem).attr('title');
+      return $t.parse(iso8601);
     }
   });
 
@@ -102,13 +102,23 @@
   };
 
   function refresh() {
-    var date = $t.datetime(this);
-    if (!isNaN(date)) {
-      $(this).text(inWords(date));
+    var data = prepareData(this);
+    if (!isNaN(data.datetime)) {
+      $(this).text(inWords(data.datetime));
     }
     return this;
   }
 
+  function prepareData(element) {
+    element = $(element);
+    if (element.data("timeago") === undefined) {
+      element.data("timeago", { datetime: $t.datetime(element) });
+      var text = $.trim(element.text());
+      if (text.length > 0) element.attr("title", text);
+    }
+    return element.data("timeago");
+  }
+
   function inWords(date) {
     return $t.inWords(distance(date));
   }

test/index.html

@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@
 
     <p>Date only (abbr element): <abbr class="timeago" title="2008-02-26">(you shouldn't see this)</abbr>.</p>
     <p>Date only (time element): <time class="timeago" datetime="2008-02-26">(you shouldn't see this)</time>.</p>
+    <p>Date only (friendly tooltip): <abbr id="testTooltip" class="timeago" title="2008-02-26">February 26th</abbr>.</p>
+    <p>Date only (default tooltip): <abbr id="defaultTooltip" class="timeago" title="2008-02-26"> </abbr>.</p>
 
     <h2>Errors</h2>
 
@@ -190,12 +192,13 @@
 
       $.timeago.settings.allowFuture = true;
 
-      $('abbr.loaded').attr('title', iso8601(new Date()));
-      $('abbr.modified').attr('title', iso8601(new Date(document.lastModified)));
+      prepareDynamicDates();
 
       $('abbr.timeago').timeago();
       $('time.timeago').timeago();
 
+      var tooltip = $("#testTooltip").data("timeago");
+
       $('abbr.todate').each(function () {
         var date = $.timeago.parse(this.title);
         $(this).text(date.toUTCString());
@@ -250,6 +253,23 @@
         }), 'All long term dates correctly parsed');
       });
 
+      module('Data object');
+
+      test("should set timeago data object", function () {
+        ok(tooltip, "data set");
+        ok(tooltip.datetime, "datetime set");
+      });
+
+      module('Tooltip');
+
+      test("should set title to original text contents", function () {
+        ok($("#testTooltip").attr("title") == "February 26th", "correctly set");
+      });
+
+      test("should leave title alone if no text text content", function () {
+        ok($("#defaultTooltip").attr("title") == "2008-02-26", "correctly set");
+      });
+
       module('Parsing');
 
       // Note, different browsers behave slightly different

test/test_helpers.js

@@ -10,10 +10,10 @@ var iso8601 = function (date) {
     + ":" + zeropad(date.getUTCSeconds()) + "Z";
 };
 
-jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
+function prepareDynamicDates() {
   $('abbr.loaded').attr("title", iso8601(new Date()));
   $('abbr.modified').attr("title", iso8601(new Date(document.lastModified)));
-});
+}
 
 function loadPigLatin() {
   jQuery.timeago.settings.strings = {