fix(post-date): preserve classic theme markup and fix archive titles

[rbcorrales]

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• Have you followed the Newspack Contributing guideline?
• Does your code follow the WordPress' coding standards and VIP Go coding standards?
• Have you checked to ensure there aren't other open Pull Requests for the same update/change?

Changes proposed in this Pull Request:

Follow-up to #4579. Addresses review feedback from @laurelfulford about preserving the classic theme's HTML markup for the updated date, and fixes the archive title regression.

• Renamed hook from newspack_theme_after_posted_on to newspack_theme_posted_on (now fires inside newspack_posted_on() in the theme)
• Changed classic theme output to bare inner elements (<span class="updated-label"> + <time class="updated">) matching the old theme markup exactly
• Removed plugin's inline CSS for .updated-date (theme provides .updated-label styling)
• Added in_the_loop() guard to filter_get_the_date to prevent archive titles showing relative dates (e.g. "Daily Archives: 2 days ago")
• Added time.updated[datetime] to the relative-time JS selector so the updated date gets a hover tooltip on classic themes

Requires companion theme PR: Automattic/newspack-theme#2658. Must ship together.

Closes NPPD-1278.

How to test the changes in this Pull Request:

1. Activate the classic Newspack theme (with the companion theme PR) and enable both "Show relative dates" and "Show last updated date" in Newspack > Settings > Advanced Settings > Post Date.
2. Create or find a post modified well after publication (at least 24 hours). Verify the markup is all inside one .posted-on span: <time class="entry-date published"> + <span class="updated-label">Updated </span> + <time class="updated">.
3. Hover over both dates and verify both show a tooltip with the full date.
4. Visit a daily archive page and verify the title shows the full date, not "X days ago".
5. Switch to the block theme. Verify the updated date still renders correctly with data-newspack-modified and wp-block-post-date__modified-date.
6. Open a post in the block editor. Verify the "Hide/Show last updated date" toggle appears in the Summary panel.

Other information:

• Have you added an explanation of what your changes do and why you'd like us to include them?
• Have you written new tests for your changes, as applicable?
• Have you successfully ran tests with your changes locally?

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adjusts the Post Date feature integration to better match the classic Newspack theme’s historical markup while preventing relative-date formatting from leaking into archive titles.

Changes:

• Switch classic-theme updated-date injection to the new newspack_theme_posted_on hook and adjust classic updated-date HTML output to match legacy markup.
• Prevent get_the_date “time ago” conversion from applying outside the loop (fixes archive title regressions).
• Update the relative-time JS to also target time.updated[datetime] and remove the plugin’s classic updated-date inline CSS.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

File	Description
includes/class-post-date.php	Renames the classic-theme hook, updates classic updated-date markup, removes inline CSS, and adds an in_the_loop() guard in get_the_date filtering.
src/other-scripts/relative-time/index.js	Expands the selector to include time.updated[datetime] so classic updated dates get tooltips/updates.
tests/unit-tests/class-post-date-test.php	Updates the get_the_date filter test to simulate being “in the loop”.

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[laurelfulford]

I haven't had a chance to give this one a full review yet (sorry!), but it looks like the hidden 'updated' dates might be missing -- this is something that some publishers are using CSS to show to "roll their own" show updated date option.

When I edit a post, I get:

... compared to the same post in the Content Loop block -- the markup does differ, but the bit that's missing from the single post is the second, hidden <time> tag.

That second <time> should start showing up as soon as the post it edited.

It's a weird edge case for folks using this, but it'd be nice to preserve it!

[rbcorrales]

@laurelfulford good catch! I missed that on the previous theme PR.

The hidden <time class="updated"> is restored in the companion theme PR (88daed7). The theme's newspack_posted_on() now always outputs <time class="updated"> when dates differ, hidden by .updated:not(.published) { display: none }. It should continue working as expected for publishers with custom CSS.

[laurelfulford]

Thanks @rbcorrales!

The markup looks good! One remaining issue: the updated CSS now hides the updated date when you want to show it 😅

This was previously shown in the theme by adding a CSS class on the body, and using it to style the date as visible:

// Add a class if updated date should display
if ( newspack_should_display_updated_date() ) {
	$classes[] = 'show-updated';
}

.show-updated .entry-header .updated:not(.published) {
	display: inline-block;
}

[rbcorrales]

@laurelfulford thank you for spotting this. Fixed in b998513 and 4d0975f (theme).

The tricky part was avoiding a duplicate <time class="updated">, since the theme always outputs a hidden one (for sites that show it via custom CSS) and the plugin outputs another when the feature is on. If both are visible, you get the date twice.

The fix adds a filter (newspack_theme_include_hidden_updated_time) so the plugin can suppress the theme's hidden <time> when it's handling the updated date itself. The plugin adds the show-updated body class (same as the old theme) and the theme CSS uses .show-updated .entry-header .updated-label + .updated:not(.published) { display: inline } to reveal only the plugin's date. This keeps the plugin in full control of content and formatting (including time ago) when the feature is active.

Tested:

• Feature ON/OFF with classic theme
• Custom CSS that targets the hidden <time class="updated"> in both states (no duplicates, the :has( > .updated-label ) selector correctly suppresses the CSS prefix when the plugin's label is present)
• Block theme: unaffected

[laurelfulford]

Thanks @rbcorrales! This looks good to me - I also tested with a snippet of CSS used by a publisher to manipulate how the dates look, still works as expected with this change! 🎉

[github-actions]

Hey @rbcorrales, good job getting this PR merged! 🎉

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[github-actions]

🎉 This PR is included in version 6.37.0-alpha.1 🎉

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