JSF 2.0 + Primefaces 2.x: Bind string to calendar

Question

I have a bean which contains a field of type java.lang.String. This field holds free-form text which can represent a number, string, or date. When the field represents a date, I render a calendar (primefaces) on the screen, otherwise an input box is rendered.

The problem I'm having is that after the user selects the date via the calendar, I would like the date string that gets written to my free-form field to have a specific format (MM/dd/yyyy). Currently the string that gets set has the default format you get when you do a toString() on a java.util.Date object.

Does anyone know how I can control the format of the string that gets written to my field?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I think the following should do it:

<p:calendar value="#{calTestBean.dateStr}" pattern="MM/dd/yyyy">
    <f:convertDateTime pattern="MM/dd/yyyy"/>
</p:calendar>

Answer 2

Assuming that you have an String field called "freeText" with their getter and setter, add a getter that returns Date and a setter that convert a Date to String. Both using the format that you want. For example:

String freeText;

String getFreeText() {
    return this.freeText;
}

void setFreeText(String freeText) {
    this.freeText = freeText;
}

Date getFreeTextAsDate() {
    try {
        if (this.freeText == null) {
            return null;
        }
        return new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy").parse(this.freeText);
    } catch (ParseException e) {
        return null;
    }
}

void setFreeTextAsDate(Date freeTextAsDate) {
    if (freeTextAsDate== null) {
        this.freeText = null;
    } else {
        this.freeText = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy").format(freeTextAsDate);
    }
}

Finally, use freeTextAsDate in the calendar:

    <p:calendar value="#{yourBean.freeTextAsDate}" />

Answer 3

You can use the pattern attribute of primefaces calendar: pattern="MM/dd/yyyy" , or you can use java's class SimpleDateFormat for server side format and data manipulation(for better control over your string date):

SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
Date myReceivedDate = dateFormat.parse(receivedStringDate);
String myNewDate = dateFormat.format(myReceivedDate);