General Additions #

• Added Back to Table of Contents links to all README sections for improved navigation.
• All utilities & services now support an optional useCache: true parameter to enable faster memory-cached access for single-isolate apps. They remain isolate-safe by default, but enabling caching disables isolate safety. See the README for guidance on when to enable it.
• Added adapters for List<num>, List<Uint8List>, List<BigInt>, List<Duration>, and List<Uri>. Now the package supports all possible types out of the box!

🧭 Tracker Services #

Introduced a suite of new tracker utilities — see the 📖 README for full documentation, examples, and usage tips:

• PrfStreakTracker — Persistent streak tracker that increases when an action is performed every aligned period (e.g. daily), and resets if a period is missed. Ideal for login streaks, daily habits, and weekly goals. Includes methods for checking streak length, detecting breaks, and calculating time left before expiration.

• PrfPeriodicCounter — A persistent counter that resets itself automatically at the start of each aligned period (e.g. daily, hourly, weekly). Perfect for counting recurring actions like logins or submissions. Supports incrementing, getting, resetting, and clearing the count.

• PrfRolloverCounter — A sliding-window counter that resets itself after a fixed duration (e.g. 10 minutes after last use). Useful for rolling metrics like "actions per hour" or "retry cooldowns". Includes time-aware utilities like time remaining, end time, and percentage elapsed.

• PrfActivityCounter — A time-based analytics tracker that aggregates values over hour, day, month, and year spans. Useful for building heatmaps, tracking activity frequency, or logging usage patterns. Supports advanced queries like .summary(), .total(), .all(), and .maxValue(), with uncapped yearly data retention.

• All tracker tools are now covered by extensive tests — including 220 dedicated tests for the new trackers — to ensure proper state reset, timestamp alignment, and session persistence.

• These tools are designed for advanced use cases like counters, streaks, timers, and rolling metrics — allowing custom persistent services to be built cleanly and safely. All built on top of `PrfIso

Fixed #

All persistent utilities and services are now fully synchronized.

This version introduces comprehensive internal locking to all Prf-based services and trackers to prevent concurrent access issues in asynchronous or multi-call scenarios.
Previously, state mutations (e.g. .set, .reset, .increment) were not guarded, which could cause race conditions, corrupted values, or inconsistent behavior — especially in rapid or concurrent calls.

This update ensures:

• Atomic updates to counters, cooldowns, and streaks.
• No race conditions between .get(), .set(), and .reset().
• Consistency across isolates or concurrent flows.
• Industry-grade safety guarantees for production apps.

🧱 Foundation for Custom Trackers #

Introduced new foundational base classes for building your own tracking tools:

• BaseTracker<T> — base for timestamp-aware persistent values with expiration handling.
• BaseCounterTracker — extension of BaseTracker<int> with .increment() and consistent default logic.
• TrackerPeriod — an enum of aligned periods like minutes10, hourly, daily, weekly, with .duration and .alignedStart().

• Added factory methods:
  • Prf.json<T>(...) and Prf.enumerated<T>(...)
  • PrfIso.json(...) and PrfIso.enumerated(...)
• Added .isolated getter on Prf<T> for isolate-safe access.
• Expanded native type support:
  • Built-in adapters for num, Uri, List<int>, List<bool>, List<double>, List<DateTime> now supported out of the box with all prf values! (with efficient binary encoding under the hood)
• All adapters are now const for reduced memory usage and better performance.
• Updated README documentation.
• Now isolated prfs can easily be created like this:

final isoValue = Prf<String>('username').isolated;

Changes and Deprecations:

• Renamed Prfy<T> → PrfIso<T>.
• Added deprecation annotations with migration instructions.
• Deprecated classes (to be removed in v3.0.0):
  • PrfJson<T> → Prf.json<T>(...)
  • PrfEnum<T> → Prf.enumerated<T>(...)
  • Prfy<T> → PrfIso<T>
  • PrfyJson<T> → PrfIso.json<T>(...)
  • PrfyEnum<T> → PrfIso.enumerated<T>(...)
  • Or alternatively: Prf.json<T>(...).isolated, Prf.enumerated<T>(...).isolated
• Added extensive tests for every single adapter, with more than 300 tests - all adapters are heavily tested to ensure data integrity.

• Fixed Prf.value<T>() not being static as intended.

• Updated README

Added #

• Instant Cached Access:
  Introduced .cachedValue getter for Prf<T> objects to access the last loaded value without async.

• Prf.value<T>() factory:
  Added Prf.value<T>() constructor that automatically loads the stored value into memory, making .cachedValue immediately usable after initialization.

  Example:

  final score = await Prf.value<int>('user_score');
  print(score.cachedValue); // No async needed
  

  • After calling Prf.value(), you can access .cachedValue instantly.
  • If no value exists, .cachedValue will be the defaultValue or null.

Notes #

• This feature improves UI performance where fast access to settings or preferences is needed.
• Reminder: Prf<T> is optimized for speed but not isolate-safe — use Prfy<T> when isolate safety is required.

Major Update #

• Unified API:
  Consolidated all legacy PrfX classes (PrfBool, PrfInt, PrfDouble, etc.) into a single generic structure:

  • Prf<T> — Cached, fast access (not isolate-safe by design).
  • Prfy<T> — Isolate-safe, no internal caching, always reads from storage.

• Adapter-Based Architecture:
  Added modular adapter system (PrfAdapter<T>) with built-in adapters for:

  • Primitive types (bool, int, double, String, List<String>)
  • Encoded types (DateTime, Duration, BigInt, Uint8List, Enums, JSON)

• Backward Compatibility:
  Legacy PrfX classes remain available, internally powered by the new adapter system.

• Extensibility:
  Developers can register custom type adapters via PrfAdapterMap.instance.register().

• Internal Reorganization:
  Major file structure improvements (core/, prf_types/, prfy_types/, services/) for better modularity and future expansion.

Fixed #

• Isolate Safety Issue (Issue #3) (stuartmorgan-g):
  Previously, prf incorrectly advertised full isolate safety while using internal caching.
  This release properly separates behavior:

  • Prfy<T> values are truly isolate-safe, always reading from SharedPreferencesAsync without cache.
  • Prf<T> values use caching for performance, but are not isolate-safe across isolates (expected Dart behavior).
  • README and comparison tables have been updated to accurately reflect these distinctions and explain the cache behavior clearly.

• Corrected claims about shared_preferences caching behavior — acknowledged that SharedPreferencesWithCache does have Dart-side caching.

• Clarified that naive Dart caching, like in Prf<T>, shares the same limitations as SharedPreferencesWithCache regarding multi-isolate consistency.

Added #

• PrfyJson<T> — Safe JSON object storage across isolates.
• PrfyEnum<T> — Safe enum storage across isolates.
• PrfJson<T> — Cached JSON object storage.
• PrfEnum<T> — Cached enum storage.
• DateTimeAdapter, DurationAdapter, BigIntAdapter, BytesAdapter for encoded types.
• PrfCooldown and PrfRateLimiter now internally use the new types.

Changed #

• Updated README to accurately describe:

  • Isolate-safe usage patterns (Prfy).
  • Cache-optimized usage patterns (Prf).
  • Caching behavior and limitations compared to shared_preferences.

• Improved internal documentation on the adapter registration system and best practices.

• Fixed issues related to pub.flutter-io.cn formatting

• Fixed problems with README formatting

• Shortened package description in pubspec.yaml to comply with pub.flutter-io.cn length requirements

Added #

• PrfCooldown utility for managing persistent cooldown periods with built-in tracking and duration handling
• PrfRateLimiter industry-grade token bucket limiter using prf types for rolling-rate restrictions (e.g. 1000 actions per 15 minutes)
• New typed variables:
  • PrfTheme – store theme mode (light, dark, system)
  • PrfDuration – store Duration as microseconds
  • PrfBigInt – store BigInt as a string
• removeAll() method in PrfCooldown and PrfRateLimiter to clear all related sub-keys
• overrideWith() and resetOverride() methods in Prf to inject custom SharedPreferencesAsync instance for testing
• Detailed migration documentation for:
  • Migrating from SharedPreferences
  • Migrating from SharedPreferencesAsync
  • Migrating from legacy prf
• README coverage for isolate support and compatibility

Changed #

• Internal singleton of Prf now supports override injection for better testability
• Updated comparison table in README to highlight isolate safety, caching, and type support

Fixed #

• Deprecated Prf.clear(...) to discourage unintentional global wipes — use Prf.instance.clear() instead for clarity and safety

Internals migrated to SharedPreferencesAsync #

🚨 Behavioral Breaking Change (no API changes)

TL;DR — Do You Need to Do Anything? #

• ✅ No action needed if:
  • Your app is new and doesn't rely on previously stored values, or
  • You were already using SharedPreferencesAsync — everything will continue to work seamlessly.
• 🔁 Run a migration if:
  • Your app was using prf prior to this version (pre-2.0.0)
  • You want to preserve previously stored values

await PrfService.migrateFromLegacyPrefsIfNeeded();

---

🧠 Why this change? #

prf now uses SharedPreferencesAsync under the hood — the new, isolate-safe, officially recommended backend for shared preferences.

This change future-proofs prf and avoids issues caused by the old SharedPreferences API, which:

• Is being deprecated
• Is not isolate-safe
• Does not guarantee disk persistence on write (source)

---

🛠 Migration Instructions #

If your app used prf previously and stored data you want to keep:

await Prf.migrateFromLegacyPrefsIfNeeded();

This safely copies data from the legacy storage backend to the new one.
It's safe to run every time — the migration will only happen once.

---

✅ What's new in 2.0.0: #

• Internals now use SharedPreferencesAsync
• Full isolate-safety, suitable for background plugins like firebase_messaging
• Removed reliance on getInstance() and internal platform-side caching
• prf now fully controls its own cache
• Public API is unchanged — get(), set(), remove() all still work the same

---

🔁 Key Differences #

Feature	Before (1.x)	After (2.0.0)
Backend	SharedPreferences (legacy)	SharedPreferencesAsync
Android storage method	SharedPreferences XML	DataStore Preferences
Isolate-safe	❌ No	✅ Yes

---

💬 Summary #

This is a critical under-the-hood upgrade to ensure prf is compatible with modern Flutter apps, isolate-safe, and ready for the future of shared preferences.

If your app is new, or you don't care about previously stored data — you're done ✅
If you're upgrading and need old values — migrate once as shown above.

• Added example file for pub.flutter-io.cn to showcase package usage.

• Finished setting up for publishing, this package was private for too long in my repositoriee, hope you enjoy it!

• Added omprehensive documentation comments for the entire library.
• Improved API reference with examples and usage notes.
• Enhanced dartdoc coverage for all public classes and methods.
• Better explanation of advanced features and type support.

• Improved PrfDateTime encoding reliability by enforcing endian order consistency.
• Fixed internal handling of corrupted base64 data for PrfBytes.

• PrfJson<T> class for storing JSON-serializable objects using jsonEncode/jsonDecode.
• Graceful fallback when decoding invalid JSON or mismatched types.

• PrfDateTime using base64-encoded 64-bit integers to persist DateTime values with millisecond precision.
• Integrated with PrfEncoded to reduce redundant logic.

• PrfEncoded<TSource, TStore> for reusable value transformation between domain objects and SharedPreferences-compatible types.
• Supports encoding formats like JSON, binary, and base64.

• Added _exists check inside getValue() to allow fallback to defaultValue if key is missing.
• Improved caching logic to avoid unnecessary SharedPreferences reads.

Added #

• PrfVariableExtensions<T> extension with:
  • .get(), .set(value), .remove(), .isNull()
  • Uses lazy SharedPreferences initialization automatically.

Changed #

• Removed requirement to manually call Prf.init(). Now fully lazy-loaded via Prf.getInstance().

• Minor internal refactor to prevent reinitializing _initFuture in Prf.

Added #

• PrfBytes with transparent base64 storage of Uint8List.
• Full support for all native SharedPreferences types:
  • PrfInt
  • PrfDouble
  • PrfBool
  • PrfString
  • PrfStringList

Improved #

• Unified all variable types using delegate-based constructors.
• Internal logic now handles nullability consistently and efficiently.

• Added typedef support for SharedPrefsGetter<T> and SharedPrefsSetter<T>.
• Simplified PrfVariable<T> constructor by using delegates instead of abstract getter/setter classes.
• Removed old abstract classes PrfGetter and PrfSetter in favor of inline functions.

• Updated internal caching system for better performance on repeated .get() calls.

• Added maybePrefs and isInitialized to Prf for improved control over initialization state.

• PrfVariable<T> base class with typed getter/setter support.
• Manual SharedPreferences injection.
• Clean and extensible architecture for managing preference values.