refactor(post-date): remove date features now handled by newspack-plugin

[rbcorrales]

All Submissions:

• 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:

Removes date features (time-ago relative dates, updated date display, Customizer settings, per-post meta toggles, related JS and CSS) from the classic theme. These features are now centralized in newspack-plugin, which handles rendering for both classic and block themes.

newspack_posted_on() was simplified to output a single <time> element with the publish date only. The plugin handles the updated date via the dedicated newspack_theme_after_posted_on action hook. This avoids interfering with other hooks on newspack_theme_entry_meta.

See the companion plugin PR for full details and testing steps: Automattic/newspack-plugin#4579

Closes NPPD-1277, NPPD-1278.

Companion PRs:

• feat(post-date): centralize date features from theme into plugin newspack-plugin#4579
• feat(post-date): add modified date block to post-meta patterns newspack-block-theme#428

How to test the changes in this Pull Request:

See the plugin PR linked above for comprehensive testing steps covering both themes.

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

This PR removes classic-theme date-related functionality (relative “time ago” dates, updated-date display, Customizer settings, post meta toggles, and related assets) now centralized in newspack-plugin, and ensures the theme continues to expose the newspack_theme_entry_meta hook for plugin-rendered meta.

Changes:

• Removes “time ago” + updated-date features across PHP, Customizer, JS, and Sass.
• Simplifies newspack_posted_on() to output only the publish date.
• Adds do_action( 'newspack_theme_entry_meta' ) to the sponsored + authors header path for parity.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 12 out of 12 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
phpcs-rco.xml	Adds an additional PHPCS ruleset for repo checks/linting.
newspack-theme/template-parts/header/entry-header.php	Adds newspack_theme_entry_meta action to the sponsored+authors header branch.
newspack-theme/sidebar.php	Removes temporary disabling of the (now-removed) time-ago date filter around sidebar rendering.
newspack-theme/sass/site/primary/_posts-and-pages.scss	Removes styles related to updated-date UI (label/visibility toggles).
newspack-theme/js/src/relative-time.js	Removes the frontend relative-time implementation.
newspack-theme/js/src/post-meta-toggles.js	Removes editor toggles for updated-date behavior.
newspack-theme/js/src/customize-controls.js	Removes Customizer control behavior for time-ago/updated-date settings.
newspack-theme/inc/template-tags.php	Simplifies newspack_posted_on() to a single publish-date <time>.
newspack-theme/inc/template-functions.php	Removes time-ago filters and updated-date decision logic.
newspack-theme/inc/customizer.php	Removes Customizer settings/controls and inline CSS for date features.
newspack-theme/functions.php	Removes constants, script enqueue/localization, and post meta registration for removed date features.
newspack-theme/footer.php	Removes temporary disabling of the (now-removed) time-ago date filter in the footer.

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[github-actions]

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

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Please check if this PR needs to be included in the "Upcoming Changes" and "Release Notes" doc. If it doesn't, simply remove the label.

If it does, please add an entry to our shared document, with screenshots and testing instructions if applicable, then remove the label.

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[github-actions]

🎉 This PR is included in version 2.21.0-alpha.1 🎉

The release is available on GitHub release

Your semantic-release bot 📦🚀

[github-actions]

🎉 This PR is included in version 2.21.0 🎉

The release is available on GitHub release

Your semantic-release bot 📦🚀