Relative date not updated on refresh unless underlying data changes

[drm-nz]

Kibana version:
v7.7

Elasticsearch version:
v7.7

Server OS version:
Windows Server 2012

Browser version:
Chrome

Browser OS version:
Microsoft Edge Chromium 84.0.522.63
Chrome 84.0.4147.135

Original install method (e.g. download page, yum, from source, etc.):
Download page >> Installed as a service using the built-in PowerShell script

Describe the bug:
I have a CSV file that is updated weekly. It is then ingested by Logstash using its built-in file input plugin. One of the columns is "last seen", a timestamp that tells us when a particular record was last checked. The values of "last seen" are shown on a dashboard as a relative timestamp, ie "2 days ago". When the CSV file, and therefore the underlying data in the index, is updated the refresh button and the auto-refresh functionality nicely update the view to show the new relative timestamp. That is, if it's been recently updated, the value of "last seen" will update from "7 days ago" to "1 minute ago". However, if I leave this dashboard open for days, and the underlying CSV does not change, the value will keep showing "1 minute ago" even with auto refresh enabled and even if I manually click on the refresh button. As if the refresh function would have a built-in check for data changes that would say "nothing in the underlying data has changed, we're all good, I'm not going to refresh anything". This, of course, is wrong as relative date should always be relative to the actual timestamp and therefore it should be updated even if the underlying data shows the same values. The only way to regenerate these relative date fields is to reload the page completely using the refresh/reload button of the browser.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create an index pattern for an index that has date formatted field(s) in it
2. Modify one of the date fields to show as "relative date"
3. Switch to the Discover page
4. Create a search for this index pattern and make the relative date visible.
5. Save your search
6. Create a new dashboard
7. Add your search to the dashboard
8. Set the dashboard's auto-refresh to something that's frequent enough for your tests
9. Save your dashboard
10. Wait longer than your refresh period and notice that relative date will show the initial value ie, "5 minutes ago" even hours later
11. Press the blue refresh button on the top right, notice that the screen blinks but relative date is not refreshed.
12. Reload the whole page using the browser's refresh button and notice that relative dates are updated.

Expected behavior:
Relative date fields to be recalculated at every refresh, even if the underlying data has not changed.

Screenshots (if relevant):

• as normal date:
• as relative date:

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-app (Team:KibanaApp)

[drm-nz]

Nudge

[drm-nz]

Hi, Can I please have an update on this. It's been a while and it looks like there's been no progress on this ticket. Must have been buried under other issues. Can someone please have a look. Thanks :)

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-app-arch (Team:AppArch)

[laszlomako-streamliners]

Hi Guys - Just checking in on this. Any updates? Thanks

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-data-discovery (Team:DataDiscovery)