Zmanim API Release – Page 2 of 3

KosherJava Zmanim Library Package Name and Build Process Update

The KosherJava zmanim library originally went live in 2004. There was an existing C/C++ zmanim project by Ken Bloom hosted on SourceForge (that was at the time the equivalent of what GitHub is today). The Java package structure name net.sourceforge.zmanim was based on the one used by Ken’s project (despite not being hosted there), and remained that way for 16 years.
On August 3, 2020, Eli Julian modernized the library’s build process from the previously used Ant, to Maven & Gradle. This change simplified the workflow for many developers using the zmanim API. As part of the change, the package name was updated to com.kosherjava.zmanim. The KosherJava zmanim Maven / Gradle artifacts are available at the KosherJava zmanim Maven Central page. A direct Jar download is available at Maven Central (see the KosherJava Downloads page for instructions). The old code was branched into zmanim-1.5 and will allow people who do not want to upgrade to continue to use the old structure (and Ant build process) while continuing to receive emergency bug fixes. This will allow the codebase to use more modern Java language features, without impacting users who want to remain on the legacy code. The new code has a minimum Java 8 requirement (a version released in March 2014). Releases based on the new build process will use SemVer (Semantic Versioning) to make things simpler for developers.
The upgraded build process also allowed automated GitHub’s CodeQL vulnerability scanning for the KosherJava Zmanim project.
You can add the KosherJava zmanim library as a Maven or Gradle dependency. For Maven add the following to your pom.xml.

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.kosherjava</groupId>
  <artifactId>zmanim</artifactId>
  <version>2.0.3</version>
</dependency>

For Gradle, add the following to your build.gradle file.

implementation group: 'com.kosherjava', name: 'zmanim', version: '2.0.3'

Zmanim API 1.3.0 Released

The Zmanim API version 1.3.0 was released on March 4th, 2013 כ״א אדר תשע״ג. Various changes in the new release VS the previous version 1.2.1 that was released in May 2010 can be seen below. This release includes beta support for Jewish Calendar calculations as well as a number of updated zmanim and refactored code. The Jewish Calendar support in the Zmanim API is based on Avrom Finkelstien’s HebrewDate project released in 2002. Unlike the Zmanim code, the Jewish calendar interfaces may change significantly in the future (see Jay Gindin’s various changes that may make it into this API) and should therefore be considered beta.

Changes in the Zmanim API 1.3.0 release

Refactoring of zmanim calculations to allow more flexibility in generating custom zmanim. New generic methods that take an arbitrary start and end of day for many zmanim such as sofZmanShema and getPlagHamincha etc. This makes calculating atypical zmanim that I had not anticipated when creating the API. I receive such requests from time to time, and the changes greatly simplify these types of calculations. Examples of recent requests are:
- Zman krias Shema calculated from alos as 72 minutes before netz and tzais as 7.083 degrees
- Plag hamincha from alos 7.083° to tzais 7.083°
Many rounds of general code refactoring to simplify and stabilize the code and make it easier to port. Thank you Jay Gindin for his many suggestions.
The addition of Erev Pesach zmanim to the Zmanim API
Added Tzais Geonim 3.676 degrees (18 minutes as calculated by Stanley Fishkind)
Calculation of Kiddush Levana and molad times
Hebrew calendar support (with formatters and Yom Tov calendar)
Daf Yomi calendar
A number of bug fixes including a fix to DST correction, and a calendar date correction
Changing the license of the KosherJava Zmanim API from GPL 2 to LGPL 2.1
Many additions and clarifications to the Zmanim API JavaDoc documentation. My thanks to Reb Feivel Muller for his valuable input.
Removal of the deprecated (and inaccurate) JSuntimeCalculator.java class. This has been deprecated since 2008. The NOAACalculator replaced this class.
Deprecation of the getSofZmanShmaKolEliyahu() method. Thank you to Rabbi Yisroel Boruch Twerski for pointing out that the Yisrael Vehazmanim was incorrect in including this zman. This is something he discussed with Rabbi Harfenes.
Uniformly return zmanim based on sea level sunrise and sunset. Most zmanim had this fix a long time ago, but there were a few zmanim such as candle lighting time that were corrected.
The getCandleLighting() method had a spelling correction (it had been getCandelLighting)

Changes since March 23, 2011 have been in SVN and detailed changes can be seen there.

Zmanim API Now in a Public SVN Server

Cyber Vault Thanks to Jay Gindin, the Zmanim API source code is now in a publicly available SVN server. The Google Code project can be found at code.google.com/p/kosherjava. This will have a number of benefits to the project. It will more easily allow users to find the code, ensure that they have the latest code, track changes, and allow reverting to prior versions in case an issue arises with newly checked in code. It will also allow me to stop the manual backups (part of the projects Ant build script) done as part of every development build. The repository has the new hebrewcalendar package mentioned in the recently posted FAQ: How do I Calculate the Jewish/Hebrew Date for …?. This new code is under heavy revision, and there will be changes that will likely break code using the current alpha version. The pace of changes to the interface will likely remain stable once the first beta version is released (probably after Pesach). The next step will be to touch base with various people who have copies of the API in their own SVN to either update or link to this official project SVN server.

KosherJava Zmanim Code Now in GitHub

With Google shutting down Google Code at the end of 2015, the KosherJava Zmanim source code has been moved to GitHub.

Zmanim API 1.2.1 Released

The Zmanim API 1.2.1 was released today. Changed in this release were the addition of a few very early Tzais zmanim, and the removal of references to the GregorianCalendar in favor of the base Calendar class to ease Noah Blumenthal’s use of the Zmanim API in a zmanim application for the BlackBerry. This change has no impact on functionality as tested using Yitzchok’s new JUnit tests. Additionally, the JavaDoc Zmanim API documentation was modified to clearly indicate that zmanim can return nulls. A followup post will have details on this.
The main download is the Zmanim 1.2.1 release zip file that includes source files and JavaDoc documentation. Also available for download (included in the above zip file) is the main zmanim-1.2.1.jar and the zmanimAstronomical-1.2.1.jar that only includes the AstronomicalCalendar. The removal of the GregorianCalendar was in this class. Additional detail on the downloads can be seen on the Zmanim Download page

Zmanim API 1.2 Released

The Zmanim API 1.2 was released today. The only change in this release is the removal of elevation as a factor in the calculation of all zmanim besides sunrise and sunset. Updated JavaDocs now reflect these changes. Please see the Elevation Now Only Impacts Sunrise and Sunset Calculations in the Zmanim API post for additional information.

I would like to thank the various people who contacted me on the subject.

The main download is the Zmanim 1.2 release zip file that includes source files and JavaDoc documentation. Also available for download (included in the above zip file) is the main zmanim-1.2.jar. The zmanimAstronomical-1.1.jar that only includes the AstronomicalCalendar was not impacted by this change, but the version has been updated to zmanimAstronomical-1.2.jar for consistency. Additional detail on the downloads can be seen on the Zmanim Download page