🕑 NetTime

Network-time-synchronization in swift

Features

• Network Time Protocol (NTP) support for accurate time synchronization.
• Easy to use API for fetching and using network time.
• Caching of server time for quick access.
• Compatible with iOS and macOS.

Requirements

• iOS 17 and later
• macOS 14 and later

Installation

To add the NetTime package to your Swift project, add the following line to the dependencies value of your Package.swift.

.package(url: "https://github.com/sentryco/NetTime", branch: "main")

Then include "NetTime" in the dependencies value of any Target in which you want to use NetTime.

Usage

Here's an example of how to use NetTime:

import NetTime

Date.updateTime { // Call when app launches etc
    print("☀️ Current Date: \(Date().formatted())")
    print("☎️ Server time: \(Date.serverTime.formatted())")
}
Date.serverTime // Returns the cached server date

Competitors:

There are several libraries available for network time synchronization in Swift. Here are a few:

1. TrueTime.swift: An NTP client for Swift. This library allows you to get the "true" network time, and not rely on the device's system clock.

2. Kronos: Another NTP based time synchronization library developed by Lyft.

3. NetClock: A simple NTP client to get internet time in Swift.

4. SwiftNTP: A simple Network Time Protocol client written in Swift.

Tip

Remember to check the documentation and the community around these libraries to ensure they fit your needs and are actively maintained.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our contributing guidelines for details.

License

NetTime is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Todo:

• Do more exploration into side-effects
• Comb the competitors for ways to improve
• add Troubleshooting or FAQ section: If there are common issues users run into, addressing them in the README can save time for both you and the users.
• add Versioning: If you're planning on maintaining this project long-term, it might be helpful to include information about the versioning system you're using.
• add Screenshots or GIFs: If applicable, visual aids can help users understand how your package works or what it looks like when it's running.
• Error Handling and Logging: The current implementation of network requests and error handling could be improved for better reliability and maintainability. For instance, in the updateTime function in Date+NetTime.swift, the error handling is minimal and does not provide detailed feedback for debugging. Action: Enhance error handling by using Result types or throwing errors that can be caught and handled appropriately. Also, improve logging to capture more detailed information about the state and errors.
• Unit Testing: The unit tests could be expanded to cover more scenarios and ensure robustness. For example, the NetTimeTests.swift file shows tests for time conversion and connectivity but could include more comprehensive tests for error cases and edge cases. Action: Add more comprehensive tests, particularly focusing on failure modes and network issues.
• Network Reliability The Reachability.swift utility checks for internet connectivity but could be enhanced to handle different network conditions more robustly. Action: Enhance the network reachability checks to handle various network conditions and provide fallbacks or retries.
• Remove Logger as a dependency. do logging in higher levels of the code etc.