flutter_timezone_observer

A Flutter package for accessing the native device timezone (IANA) and observing changes. Includes mixins to automatically handle app lifecycle events.

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Features

• Get Current Timezone: One-time async call to get the current IANA timezone (e.g., America/New_York).
• Listen to Changes: Get a Stream of timezone changes broadcast by the native platform.
• Lifecycle-Aware Mixin: Includes AppLifecycleAwareTimezoneObserverMixin to automatically re-fetch the timezone when the app resumes.
• Simple Mixin: Includes a basic TimezoneObserverMixin for simple use cases.
• Minimal: No external Flutter package dependencies.

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How to Use

1. One-time Read

Get the current timezone on app start or any time you need it.

import 'package.flutter_timezone_observer/flutter_timezone_observer.dart';

Future<void> main() async {
  final String timezone = await FlutterTimezoneObserver.currentTimezone;
  print('Current device timezone: $timezone');
  runApp(MyApp());
}

2. Listen to Stream

Listen to the native broadcast for timezone changes.

final subscription = FlutterTimezoneObserver.onTimezoneChanged.listen((zone) {
print('Timezone changed: $zone');
});

// Don't forget to cancel
subscription.cancel();

3. Usage with Lifecycle-Aware Mixin (Recommended)

This is the most reliable way. Use this mixin on your State to automatically handle initialization, stream listening, and app-resume logic.

import 'package.flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_timezone_observer/app_lifecycle_aware_timezone_observer_mixin.dart';

class MyWidget extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _MyWidgetState createState() => _MyWidgetState();
}

class _MyWidgetState extends State<MyWidget>
    with AppLifecycleAwareTimezoneObserverMixin {
      
  @override
  void onTimezoneChanged(String newZone) {
    // The mixin handles all the logic.
    // Just call setState to rebuild with the new value.
    setState(() {
      // `currentZone` (from the mixin) is already updated
    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    // `currentZone` is provided by the mixin
    return Text(
      'Current Zone: ${currentZone ?? 'Loading...'}',
    );
  }
}

4. Usage with Simple Mixin (Basic)

If you only care about the stream and don't need the app-resume logic, use TimezoneObserverMixin.

import 'package:flutter_timezone_observer/timezone_observer_mixin.dart';

class MyWidget extends StatefulWidget {
  // ...
}

class _MyWidgetState extends State<MyWidget>
    with TimezoneObserverMixin { // <-- Note: the simple mixin
      
  @override
  void onTimezoneChanged(String newZone) {
    setState(() {});
  }
  
  // ...
}

5. Advanced: Handling Paused State

By default, AppLifecycleAwareTimezoneObserverMixin ignores stream events while the app is paused (to prevent background setState calls), as it re-fetches the timezone on resume anyway.

You can override this behavior by setting emitTimezoneWhenPaused to true.

import 'package.flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_timezone_observer/app_lifecycle_aware_timezone_observer_mixin.dart';

class MyWidget extends StatefulWidget {
  // ...
}

class _MyWidgetState extends State<MyWidget>
    with AppLifecycleAwareTimezoneObserverMixin {
      
  // Override the getter to enable background updates
  @override
  bool get emitTimezoneWhenPaused => true;
  
  @override
  void onTimezoneChanged(String newZone) {
    // This will now fire even if the app is paused.
  }
  
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Text(
      'Current Zone: ${currentZone ?? 'Loading...'}',
    );
  }
}

Installation

1. Add to pubspec.yaml

dart pub add flutter_timezone_observer