Read Time

Calculates the read time of an article.

Output string

e.g: x min read or 5 minutes read.

Features

• Multilingual translations support.
• Static to get simple abbreviated output string in English.
• Static method to get the integer value of the number of minutes required to read the given text.
• Multilingual and right-to-left language support.
• Support for Array output
• Support for JSON output

Installation

Installation using composer

composer require waqarahmed/read-time

Usage

Static Methods

There are two static methods minRead(string $text) andtime(sting $text).

minRead()

Use this method for a simple x min read message. It returns a rounded minutes number with a min read message.

$text = str_repeat('ad bc ', 251); //502 words in $text
echo ReadTime::minRead($text);

The output:

2 min read

time()

time() method returns an array of the number of minutes and seconds required to read the given $text.

$text = str_repeat('ad bc ', 251); //502 words in $text
ReadTime::time($text);

The output:

['minutes' => 2, 'seconds' => 12]

Class Methods

Create an instance of the class to use

• translation
• right-to-left language support
• JSON output
• array output

constructor()

The Constructor takes and sets these parameters:

public function __construct(
  string $text, 
  array $translation = null, 
  bool $abbreviate = true, 
  bool $rtl = false, 
  string $language = null,
  int $wordsPerMinute = 228
  )

Class defaults

• $wordsPerMinute default value is 200
• $rtl language direction right-to-left is false by default
• $translation default is null class outputs the English language by default
• $abbreviate Abbreviate the word 'minute/minutes' to 'min' is true by default

getTime()

After initiating a new class object, call the getTime() method to get the result. Example: 4 minutes read or 1 minute read or abbreviated 4 min read.

setTextLanguge()

Reading time of different languages vary significantly (S. Klosinski, K. Dietz). Class method setTextLanguage() has estimated reading times of 17 languages taken from this study.

Reference: "Standardized Assessment of Reading Performance: The New International Reading Speed Texts IReST"

Language (iso-code) Words-per-minutes

Arabic (ar) 138, Chinese (zh) 158, Dutch (nl) 202, English (en) 228, Finnish (fi) 161, French (fr) 195, German (el) 179, Hebrew (he) 187, Italian (it) 188, Japanese (jp) 193, Polish (pl) 166, Portoguese (pt) 181, Russian (ru) 184, Slovenian (sl) 180, Spanish (es) 218, Swedish (sv) 199, Turkish (tr) 166.

English is the default language. Set different languages by passing two letters (ISO 639-1) language codes to the setTextLanguag() method.

An example: Setting Turkish as the input language.

$text = str_repeat('ad bc ', 251); //502 words in $text
$result = new ReadTime($this->generateText(), ['minute' => 'dakika', 'minutes' => 'dakika', 'read' => 'okuman'], false, false, 'tr');
echo $result->getTime();

Translation

Pass translation array to the class to set the translations of the words: minute, minutes, min and read. A passed array must be an associative array with any number of translation strings.

Default property of $translation

$translation = [
        'min'     => 'min',
        'minute'  => 'minute',
        'minutes' => 'minutes',
        'read'    => 'read',
    ];

Example translation input

$text = str_repeat('ad bc ', 251); //502 words in $text
$result = new ReadTime($this->generateText(), ['minute' => 'minuto', 'minutes' => 'minutos', 'read' => 'leer'], false);
echo $result->getTime();

The Spanish translated output: 2 minutos leer.

Right-to-Left Language Translation

Set $rtl property to true and pass $translation of languages written right-to-left.

$text = str_repeat('ad bc ', 251);
$result = new ReadTime($this->generateText(), ['minute' => 'دقیقه', 'minutes' => 'دقایق', 'read' => 'خواندن'], false, true);
echo $result->getTime();

Persian translated output: 'خواندن دقایق 2'

getJSON()

Method to get JSON output of claculated read time and class properties.

A class instance with default properties outputs:

$text = str_repeat('hello world ', 251);
$result = new ReadTime($text);
echo $result->getJSON();

outputs:

{
    "minutes": 2,
    "time": {
        "minutes": 2,
        "seconds": 12
    },
    "wordCount": 502,
    "translation": {
        "min": "min",
        "minute": "minute",
        "minutes": "minutes",
        "read": "read"
    },
    "abbreviate": true,
    "wordsPerMinute": 228
}

getArray()

Method to get array output of calculated read time and instance properties. A class instance with default properties:

$text = str_repeat('hello world ', 251);
$result = new ReadTime($text);
echo $result->getArray();

Outputs:

array(6) {
  ["minutes"]=>
  int(2)
  ["time"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["minutes"]=>
    int(2)
    ["seconds"]=>
    int(12)
  }
  ["wordCount"]=>
  int(502)
  ["translation"]=>
  array(4) {
    ["min"]=>
    string(3) "min"
    ["minute"]=>
    string(6) "minute"
    ["minutes"]=>
    string(7) "minutes"
    ["read"]=>
    string(4) "read"
  }
  ["abbreviate"]=>
  bool(true)
  ["wordsPerMinute"]=>
  int(228)
}