---
title: Date Formats in Action Workflows
description: "The Action Workflows feature in [PublishPress Future](https://publishpress.com/links/future) does support different date formats. The default date format is Y-m-d H:i:s. In this documentation, I'll show you how the date formats work using example workflows. The date formatting used is taken from…"
url: "https://publishpress.com/knowledge-base/date-formats-workflows/"
updated: "2025-04-24"
category: "PublishPress Future / Action Workflows: Technical Details"
---

# Date Formats in Action Workflows

The Action Workflows feature in [PublishPress Future](https://publishpress.com/links/future) does support different date formats. The default date format is Y-m-d H:i:s.

In this documentation, I'll show you how the date formats work using example workflows. The date formatting used is taken from [the official PHP date format](https://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.format.php).

---

## Example Workflow: Publish Date

In this first example, shown in the screenshot below, there's a workflow that will add the publishing date to the post title.

![Sample workflow with dates](https://publishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/sample-dateworkflow-1024x575.png)

This workflow will add a "Run workflow" link under each post in the "Post" screen, as in this next screenshot.

![](https://publishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/run-workflow-link-1-1024x369.png)

When you click the link, it will add the date to the post title as in this next screenshot. The date added to the title is using the Y-m-d H:i:s format.

![](https://publishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/date-change-workflow-1024x391.png)

In the "Update post" step of the workflow, I entered these two shortcodes to update the title. The second shortcode is in control of the Post Date.

`{{onPostRowAction1.post.title}} {{onPostRowAction1.post.date}}`

You can modify the post date shortcode to get different results. For example, you can modify the shortcode to only show the Year. There are two steps:

- Add `date` to the beginning of the shortcode to show you are modifying the date.
- Add `output"Y"` to the end of the shortcode to control the date format.

So here is the new shortcode I will use. In this example, the date format will be "Y" which only shows the year.

{`{onPostRowAction1.post.title}}` `{{date onPostRowAction1.post.date output="Y"}}`

This next screenshot shows the end result of that new workflow. Instead of having the year, month, date and time, we now only have the year.

![](https://publishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/date-update-year-1024x357.png)

---

## Example Workflow: Modified Date

In this first example, shown in the screenshot below, there's a workflow that will add the modified date to the post content.

![Update post content with modified date](https://publishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/update-post-content-1024x546.png)

This workflow will add the modified date into the content for each post as in this next screenshot. The date added to the content is using the Y-m-d H:i:s format.

![Modified date added to new posts](https://publishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/modified-date-content-1024x383.png)

In the "Update post" step of the workflow, I entered these two shortcodes to update the title. The second shortcode is in control of the Modified Date.

`{{onPostUpdate1.postAfter.content}} This post was modified on {{onPostUpdate1.postAfter.modified}}`

![](https://publishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cotent-plus-modified-1024x358.png)

As before, you can modify the shortcode to a different date format. Again there are two steps:

- Add `date` to the beginning of the shortcode to show you are modifying the date.
- Add `output"n M, Y"` to the end of the shortcode to control the date format.

So here is the new shortcode I will use. In this example, the date format will be "j M, Y" which shows the date, month, and year.

`{{onPostUpdate1.postAfter.content}} This post was modified on {{date onPostUpdate1.postAfter.modified output="j M, Y"}}`

This next screenshot shows the end result of that updated workflow. Instead of having the year, month, date and time, we now only have the date, month and year in a new format.

![Modified date workflow](https://publishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/modified-date-workflow-1024x377.png)