KosherJava

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 [...]

Questions communicated to me via the contact page far exceed the number of comments in the blog. In the hope of clarifying the most common questions related to the Zmanim API and to a lesser degree other parts of this site, I plan on a series of FAQ posts that will hopefully cut down on [...]

After numerous requests, the Zmanim Calendar Generator can now output a less extensive list of zmanim. While the “full” calendar option (the default) generates an Excel spreadsheet with 108 columns of zmanim, the “standard” output generates a spreadsheet with 15 columns containing the most commonly used zmanim. The exact list of what constitutes commonly used [...]

The Zmanim API 1.1 was released early this morning. Information about what changed in this release can be seen in previous posts about various beta and patch releases. A last minute change involved the removal of the misheyakir calculations commonly used by the Syrian community. The removal was due to the various different minhagim used, [...]

The third beta release of the Zmanim API 1.1 is now available on the download page. The main change in this release is the addition of zmanim based on the psak of Chacham Yosef Harari-Raful of Yeshivat Ateret Torah. These zmanim were requested by members of the Syrian Community. Other changes in this release [...]

A while ago, Dr. Irv Bromberg mentioned to me, that my Zmanim API was in use in the Astronomical Clock Applet created by Ali Adams.

The applet was a modification to Antony Pranata’s clock applet that displayed Islamic prayer times. Apparently the Zmanim API was so flexible that without any modification it was [...]

The Zmanim Calendar Generator has been back up for about 2 weeks, but due to a downgrade in the Java version used, the DST issue that was as mentioned as fixed in a previous post returned. This has now been fixed using the Timezone Updater Tool. Please let me know if you run into any [...]

The Zmanim Calendar Generator is temporarily out of commission due to technical issues being experienced by my web hosting company. My web hosting company was bought out and the new company experienced technical issues in the migration, including Java issues that affect the calendar generation. They have no ETA for a fix.

The Java version on the server was just updated to JDK 5.0 Update 11 and now supports the US 2007 DST Changes mentioned in the previous post. This means that Excel zmanim calendars generated by this site will have the proper daylight savings time for zmanim.

As you may know, the U.S. is changing the Daylight Saving Time rules this year due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The server currently hosting this site does not yet have the Java patch for this. This means that from the second Sunday in March (the 11th) until the the last Sunday in [...]