Chat Timestamps

Functionalities

This very tiny mod adds a customizable timestamp (defaults to [HH:MM:SS] format) to every chat window there is.

v1.04+ support for color coding
v1.05+ support time selectors that remove leading 0 from the hour (#H, #I)
v1.07+ works with chat frames both static (main, combat log, custom tabs) and dynamic (detached whispers, battle.net whispers)
v1.08+ support local time offsets (to displace the timestamps forward or backward), server time (@H, $H, @I, $I, @M, @p, @P), and lower case am/pm format (%P)

Server time

While added for completion, it has to be noted that world servers and instances servers might live in different timezones. So for example if the server lives in UTC, and the instance server in UTC+2, the user (by using server times) will see a lapse forward when moving from the world to the instance, and backwards when moving from the instance to the world.

To avoid this problem (for those interested only in server times) offsets have been introduced, allowing the user to set a custom number of seconds as offset from the local time. If the user lives in PST, but the server in PST-2, using the command /cts offset -7200 will adjust the local timestamp to match it.

Additionally it should be noted that offsets will not apply to server time.

Dates

Although previously taken for granted and not specified, it is actually possible to set up a format containing year/month/day/week or whatnot. See the examples for more inforamtion.

Commands

/cts format [timeformat] – shows (or sets if parameter is passed) timestamp format
/cts offset [seconds] – shows (or sets if parameter is passed) timestamp offset, expressed in seconds
/cts serveroffset – shows the (approximated) offset between local time and server time

Custom Time Selectors

v1.5+

#H – same as %H, but removes the leading zero ("01" becomes "1")
#I – same as %I, but removes the leading zero

v1.8+

@H – server time hour (24h format)
@I – server time hour (12h format)
@M – server time minute
@p – server time AM/PM
@P – server time am/pm
$H – same as @H, but removes the leading zero
$I – same as @I, but removes the leading zero
%P – same as @P, but for local time (was not previously available on certain OS)

Color Codes (v1.4+)

|cAARRGGBB<timestamp format here>|r
AA = Alpha, RR = Red, GG = Green, BB = Blue

In standard chat frames alpha is apparently not used, but it's still recommended to set it to FF

Examples

Assuming local time is 14:50:21, while server time 16:50:21

|cFFFF2200[%H:%M:%S]|r – [14:50:21] message
|cFF2288FF[#I:%M:%S %p]|r – [2:50:21 PM] message
|cFF00FF00[@I:@M:%S @P]|r – [04:50:21 pm] message
%A %B %d, %Y – %I:%M:%S %p – Sunday August 16, 2:50:21 PM message

Additional information about time formats can be found here. You can also use this tool to ease the set up of a time format string.

Note that not all the formats are valid on both Windows and OS X, some selectors might be reported as invalid. For example %e (day of the month 1..31) doesn't work properly on some OS, while %d (day of the month 01..31) does.