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Under review

Adding CandleLighting minutes used to RSS reply

micha berger 2 days ago • updated 4 hours ago • 4

Alternatively, perhaps making the default used when 'm=on' an attribute of the location block. So that it can be reported as an explanation of the time.

I am allowing the user to provide an int value (1..59) in which case I send `b=${candleMin}` and if empty - `b=on`. But it would be useful when I display the reply to include for the user what time was used. In Beit Shemesh, for example, there are sub-communities using 40 (because it is in Jerusalem district), 30 (I don't know why) and 20 min (a common Israeli alternative to 18) before sunset. So someone may guess the wrong default.

Under review
Michael J. Radwin 11 hours ago

Thank you for this suggestion!

If your application is fetching RSS data from Hebcal, perhaps you could consider post-processing our RSS feed and modifying the title field yourself? For example, if the RSS contains this:


<title>Candle lighting: 7:22pm</title>


You could modify it to say

<title>Candle lighting: 7:22pm (20 min)</title>

This would give you the most flexibility to display the candle lighting minutes before sunset in whatever format you prefer...

micha berger 7 hours ago

I can do that, but where do I get the "20 min" from when b=on? I can parse the time and get sunset time from zmanim and do date math... But it would be helpful to more people than just me if the location came with its default setting. (For example if they aren't also doing a zmanim request and don't have an override field so all candle lighting is b=on.)

I am sorry my original feedback wasn't clearer.

Michael J. Radwin 6 hours ago

Hebcal defaults to 18 minutes before sundown for most all locations. The only exceptions are 40 minutes before sundown for Jerusalem, 30 minutes for Haifa and Zikhron Yaakov. 

So if you don’t specify b, it will be 18 unless it’s one of those 3 cities. 

Note also b=on may be harmless now but isn’t recommended according to the documentation. If that parameter is specified it should be a positive integer only. 


micha berger 4 hours ago

Which would make my client sensitive to any changes on your side, like adding more exceptional cities. I will put in my own rule and list of exceptions.

Thanks for the RSS feed, though! My domain host no longer gives us the resources to run a zemanim calculator locally. At least, not in java (where the jvm and jdk mean a huge "minimal" footprint).

Our 6-12 page hits a week will greatly appreciate the restoration of our calendar page.

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