Java and SOAP data client request as UTC time and save as EST time

Question

I have a soap client request that I need to convert the date response into EST time.

On my screen, I selected: 11:45am and I want to save 11:45 am in the database.

But the SOAP request comes in as:

2012-11-24T16:45:00.000Z

In java code, the date prints as:

Sat Nov 24 11:45:00 EST 2012 ...

Yet we make another web-service call which eventually saves to the database (SQL Server): 2012-11-24 16:45

Calendar incomingWebServiceCalendarObject = fromWebService.getDateTime()

Calendar outgoingWebServiceCalendarObject = incomingWebServiceCalendarObject;
webServiceBean.setDateTime(outgoingWebServiceCalendarObject);

... How can I save as 2012-11-24 11:45?

Also, here is the gregorian calendar:

java.util.GregorianCalendar[time=1353775500000,areFieldsSet=true,areAllFieldsSet=true,lenient=true,zone=sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo[id="America/New_York",offset=-18000000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,transitions=235,lastRule=java.util.SimpleTimeZone[id=America/New_York,offset=-18000000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,startYear=0,startMode=3,startMonth=2,startDay=8,startDayOfWeek=1,startTime=7200000,startTimeMode=0,endMode=3,endMonth=10,endDay=1,endDayOfWeek=1,endTime=7200000,endTimeMode=0]],firstDayOfWeek=1,minimalDaysInFirstWeek=1,ERA=1,YEAR=2012,MONTH=10,WEEK_OF_YEAR=47,WEEK_OF_MONTH=4,DAY_OF_MONTH=24,DAY_OF_YEAR=329,DAY_OF_WEEK=7,DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH=4,AM_PM=0,HOUR=11,HOUR_OF_DAY=11,MINUTE=45,SECOND=0,MILLISECOND=0,ZONE_OFFSET=-18000000,DST_OFFSET=0]

...

I did the following and this appears to work, is this a proper approach, what is the code trying to accomplish based on my requirement?

final long offset = this.secondaryScheduleTime.getTimeInMillis() + TimeZone.getTimeZone("EST").getRawOffset();
final Date estTime = new Date(offset);
final Calendar c2 = Calendar.getInstance();
c2.setTime(estTime);

Answer 1

Your initial SOAP request is coming in as UTC (.000Z is your timezone information), after which your Calendar object converts it to Eastern time ,zone=sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo[id="America/New_York"... for display and then you are persisting the original SOAP information to your database.

What you don't show is how you are persisting your database and with which timestamp.

I can think of only 2 situations you have going on:

1. Your database is in UTC only and no timezone information is saved. This means that each call to/from your DB is always UTC and timezones are left up to your code.
2. Your database saves timezone info via the Timestamp datatype, but you are sending the UTC information from your SOAP request to your database, not your local Calendar object.

I think the solution you provided satisfies #2 on the list above, but again, without seeing any other details I think it will be hard to determine for sure.

I would suggest dropping some break points and stepping through your code to see exactly when/where your date objects are being created, and with what information.