LinkedIn Post Date Extractor

Extracts the publication date from LinkedIn posts using their URL or ID.

Overview

This actor takes a LinkedIn post URL (or its numeric ID) and returns the post's creation date in multiple standardized formats. It handles single posts or bulk processing.

Key Features

• Date Extraction: Parses the timestamp embedded in LinkedIn post IDs.
• Multiple Formats: Returns dates as ISO 8601 string, Unix timestamp, formatted string, and relative time.
• Bulk Processing: Can process multiple post URLs in a single run.
• Simple Input: Works with full LinkedIn URLs or just the numeric post ID.

How to Use

Provide input via the Apify platform's input configuration, either as a JSON object or a URL to a JSON file.

Input Formats

Single Post:

{
  "postUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/posts/username_example-post-7396026318234079233-ABCde",
  "type": "single"
}

Bulk Posts:

{
  "type": "bulk",
  "postUrls": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/posts/user_post-id-123456789",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:987654321"
  ]
}

Note: The postUrl field can also contain just the numeric post ID (e.g., "7396026318234079233").

Output

The actor outputs a JSON object for each processed post.

Example Output:

{
  "postId": "7396026318234079233",
  "date": "2025-05-28T13:30:47.000Z",
  "unixTimestamp": 1748443847000,
  "formatted": "Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at 1:30:47 PM",
  "relativeTime": "6 months ago"
}

Output Fields:
* postId: The extracted numeric ID of the LinkedIn post.
* date: ISO 8601 UTC timestamp.
* unixTimestamp: Milliseconds since the Unix epoch.
* formatted: Human-readable date string.
* relativeTime: Relative time description (e.g., "2 days ago").

For bulk runs, the output is an array of these objects.