Latest / Sidekick's What Just Shipped / HubSpot dates and numbers now format the CLDR way | Shipped Aug 2026
Transcript
- Dana (AI host): The space between a time and "PM" on your HubSpot pages might not be a normal space anymore. Rob (AI host): It looks identical on screen, but code that compares text can quietly stop matching. Dana (AI host): For most portals nothing changes, so here is how to tell whether yours is one of the few. Narrator (AI voice): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped, presented by Sidekick Strategies. Narrator (AI voice): Your hosts, Rob and Dana, are AI. Narrator (AI voice): The voices are synthetic, the research is real, and humans check every claim before it reaches you. Dana (AI host): Up front: Rob and I are AI hosts. Dana (AI host): We haven't edited a HubSpot template, and we're reading HubSpot's developer changelog, not testing pages ourselves. Rob (AI host): And today I'm playing a marketing manager who runs a newsletter in three countries and doesn't write code. Dana (AI host): Good, because this one sounds technical and mostly isn't. Dana (AI host): HubSpot moved how it formats dates, times, numbers, and currencies. Dana (AI host): It used to lean on the locale data bundled with the Java Runtime Environment, known as JRE. Dana (AI host): Now it uses the Common Locale Data Repository, or CLDR, which HubSpot calls the current industry standard for localization. Rob (AI host): In my words, please. Dana (AI host): Locale data is the rulebook for how a value looks in each country. Dana (AI host): Whether a date reads June fourteenth or fourteen June. Dana (AI host): Whether a decimal is a period or a comma. Dana (AI host): HubSpot swapped one rulebook for a newer one. Rob (AI host): Where would I see it? Dana (AI host): Anything HubSpot's rendering services produce: CMS pages, landing pages, blog posts, and emails. Rob (AI host): So my newsletter counts too? Dana (AI host): Yes. Emails are on HubSpot's list. Dana (AI host): If you send to readers in different countries, the dates and numbers in those emails follow the new rules. Rob (AI host): And when did it happen? Dana (AI host): HubSpot's changelog put the effective date at July fourteenth, 2026. Dana (AI host): It's automatic, so there's nothing to switch on. Rob (AI host): So what actually looks different? Dana (AI host): HubSpot says most content won't change, and some may get more accurate formatting. Dana (AI host): The main difference is spacing. Dana (AI host): CLDR may use non-breaking spaces where you used to get a normal space. Rob (AI host): Where exactly? Dana (AI host): Three spots. Between a time and the AM or PM marker. Dana (AI host): Between a number and a unit label. And in Cyrillic date formats, before the year marker. Rob (AI host): If it looks the same, why do I care? Dana (AI host): Because people don't read your page the way code does. Dana (AI host): HubSpot puts it this way: these characters often look identical to regular spaces but behave differently in code. Rob (AI host): Give me a real example. Dana (AI host): Say a developer built a module that checks whether a formatted time equals "9:00 AM", typed with a regular space. Dana (AI host): If the output now carries a non-breaking space, they no longer line up. Nothing errors. Dana (AI host): The check just quietly fails. Rob (AI host): That's the scary version. Who's likely to hit it? Dana (AI host): HubSpot names three HubL filters. Dana (AI host): Datetimeformat is the most affected, for AM and PM spacing and Cyrillic formats. Dana (AI host): Timeformat changes AM and PM spacing. Numberformat changes unit spacing. Rob (AI host): Do I need to know what those spaces are called? Dana (AI host): Not really. HubSpot lists them as NBSP and NNBSP, a non-breaking space and a narrow one. Dana (AI host): Your developer will recognize the names. Rob (AI host): What about other tools that read our pages or emails? Dana (AI host): HubSpot covers that too: parsing logic that assumes standard whitespace may break silently. Dana (AI host): If another system reads a formatted date out of HubSpot content, that's a place to look. Rob (AI host): And if nobody we work with has ever touched those filters? Dana (AI host): Then HubSpot's guidance is simple. Dana (AI host): Unless your setup relies on specific string formatting, no action is needed. Rob (AI host): Why it matters: the risk isn't a broken page, it's a quiet mismatch nobody notices until a customer does. Dana (AI host): Our research makes the same point and adds a bonus. Dana (AI host): HubSpot says this upgrade also supports modern Java features and better runtime performance. Rob (AI host): So who should actually look? Dana (AI host): Our research points to developers and CMS builders with custom templates or coded modules, marketing ops leaders at global companies, and integration owners who pass formatted text out of HubSpot into another tool. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Hey, it's George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Full honesty, this is my AI voice clone, made with my permission. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Quiet changes like this are why I like a regular health check on any HubSpot portal. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Our free HubSpot Portal Audit asks targeted questions about the hubs you use, then scores your portal from zero to one hundred with severity ratings and your top three next steps. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): It takes about five minutes, and we never need access to your account. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Look for it under tools at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Rob (AI host): Okay, Dana, what's still fuzzy? Dana (AI host): One stretch in our write-up. Dana (AI host): It also tells finance teams to spot-check currency in invoices, quotes, and deal records. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's changelog only lists CMS pages, landing pages, blog posts, and emails, so treat that as cautious advice, not a confirmed effect. Dana (AI host): And HubSpot doesn't say which locales changed beyond those spacing rules. Dana (AI host): We couldn't find a full list of before and after examples, so the real test is your own pages. Rob (AI host): Then give me the plan, for the marketing manager who doesn't code. Dana (AI host): Step one: ask whoever built your templates one question. Dana (AI host): Do any of our modules use datetimeformat, timeformat, or numberformat? Rob (AI host): And if the answer is no? Dana (AI host): You're done. HubSpot says no action is needed unless your setup depends on exact formatting. Rob (AI host): Could I spot a problem myself, just by looking at the page? Dana (AI host): Not by eye. That's the whole point: these spaces look exactly like normal ones. Dana (AI host): Leave the search to someone who can read the code. Rob (AI host): And if the answer is yes? Dana (AI host): Step two: have them search the code for any spot that compares or parses that formatted text, like a check for an exact time string. Dana (AI host): Step three: open a live page or an email preview that uses those filters, in each language you publish, and compare it against what you expect. Dana (AI host): Step four: if something compares exact strings, change it to compare the underlying value instead, or update the expected text to match the new output. Dana (AI host): Step five: write down what you checked and which pages you previewed, so the next platform change takes ten minutes, not a whole day. Rob (AI host): And if my developer finds nothing at all? Dana (AI host): Then you've confirmed you're on the newer rulebook with nothing to fix, and you have the notes to prove it. Rob (AI host): My marketing manager is relieved. Rob (AI host): For most of us, this is a two-minute conversation with a developer. Dana (AI host): If you remember one thing: it's the spaces, and only code notices them. Rob (AI host): Every source we used is linked in the show notes, and you'll find more of our research at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Dana (AI host): Thank you for making room for us in your week. Rob (AI host): Ask one question, then relax. Narrator (AI voice): Sidekick's What Just Shipped is presented by Sidekick Strategies, with AI hosts Rob and Dana and AI-generated music. Narrator (AI voice): We're independent, and not affiliated with HubSpot. Find our research at Sidekick Strategies dot com.