generate-timezone-json

Generate Time Zone JSON

This is a node package which allows the generation of a JSON file containing time zones information. You could provide it your own zone.tab file, in which case it will parse the file to generate the JSON. If not given any input, it will pull the latest official time zones for you.

Please report issues found or suggestions in the project issues page

Use case: This script is specifically useful when you need a JSON file with timezones information. Maybe you need this information to be synced with your server which uses a tab file (i.e., tab-separated values). Or maybe you just need a static persistent file generated from the latest official time zones database. In these cases, this script is what you need. For other use cases, see "Other Options" section below.

Recommendation: For performance, I recommend you don't generate the JSON file multiple times in run time. Determine a single point in your app/system's life cycle when it is best to do this (e.g., pre-build time or once when requested for the first time).

Requirement: This is a lightweight node.js script, and only requires that you have node installed.

Usage (without installation)

Running the following will automatically download and cache the latest version, so there is no need to permanently install anything.

• npx generate-timezone-json to generate timezones.json from official IANA Database
• npx generate-timezone-json <filename> to generate timezones.json from a TAB file,
  • for example, using a file named "zone.tab": generate-timezone-json zone.tab

Important Note: Currently, the structure of the generated JSON file will be different depending on the source (i.e, zone.tab or the IANA time zones database). This will be addressed in this github issue.

Installation with NPM

If you have a need to permanently install the package do the following:

• Install locally: npm i generate-timezone-json
• Install globally: npm i -g generate-timezone-json

After installation, you can use npx generate-timezone-json.

Download from Github

You can also download the latest releases in Github. After downloading, extract the package, and run the unpacked JS script it with node: node index.js.

Other options

This package is specifically useful if you need a JSON file with time zones information. I did not find anything like it but it uses a couple of other packages under the hood. The following may be more appropriate for you:

1. @vvo/tzdb - a feature-packed time zones library that automatically releases updates when official time zones are changed
2. shinnn/parse-zonetab - a lightweight parser of zone.tab files

Planned features (not yet implemented)

1. Specify an output directory with option --outDir: generate-timezone <filename> --outDir <directory>
2. Uniform JSON structure for all sources
3. type definitions