title: In my React webapp, how do I show the right date in a "Website last updated" field?
body: <p>I'm putting together a demo app in which I frequently add content and new React components. I have just added the component <a href="https://github.com/nmn/react-timeago" rel="nofollow noreferrer">react-timeago</a> for showing when the latest changes were made to the site. Now I want to give that component the right timestamp. </p>
  
  <p>At worst, I suppose I could show the last time that the server was started. I am using webpack-dev-server locally. I haven't yet gone live with this site, but it will probably (like webpack-dev-server) be an express-based solution when I do. So one option is perhaps to do a grep on an express-generated logfile for server start entries. Solving that would solve the question to an extent. It's worth noting though that adding content would not require a restart, so this solution is perhaps not ideal. Presumably, I could use some kind of middleware (logger or otherwise) in express for this.</p>
  
  <p>Another possible approach might be some kind of directory watch mechanism that records the last time a change was made. Should I somehow hook this into a redux state, for example? There are so many components available that it's difficult to know which ones to put together (with my limited experience in this area) to achieve this.</p>
  
  <p>My site is a lightweight single pager and I'm loath to add any kind of datastore behind it at this stage as it seems like overkill to me. </p>
  
  <p>I can also mention that I'm using webpack 2. Aside from that it's a really basic React app with a couple of components.</p>
  
  <p>To summarize, I am after some way of looking for added content (eg. mp3 files) or changed code files, and getting that timestamp into my react-timeago component.</p>