JSP form date input field

Question

I've created a basic input form with a number of strings using Spring Web application in Intellij. The form successfully saves to the backend when using strings only so I decided to add a date field in the model and tried to modify to controller/jsp to accept this in the input form (and display in the record list). I'm having problems with the input form not getting the value.

Entity:

@Temporal(TemporalType.DATE)
@DateTimeFormat(pattern="dd.MM.yyyy")
private Date dueDate;

public Date getDueDate() {
    return dueDate;
}

public void setDueDate(Date dueDate) {
    this.dueDate = dueDate;
}

JSP (I assume value should be blank here as I am starting with an empty field to fill in?):

    <div class="control-group">
        <form:label cssClass="control-label" path="dueDate">Due Date:</form:label>
        <div class="controls">
            <input type="text" path="dueDate" class= "date" name = "dueDate" value = "<fmt:formatDate value="" pattern="MM-dd-yyyy" />"/>
        </div>
    </div>

Controller:

@RequestMapping(value = "/todos/add", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String addUser(@ModelAttribute("todo") Todo todo, BindingResult result) {
    System.err.println("Title:"+todo.getTitle());
    System.err.println("Due Date:"+todo.getDueDate());
    todoRepository.save(todo);
    return "redirect:/todos/";
}

My debug shows Due Date:null so nothing is being send for my date field from the form when posted. This means that the date field is never saved then the repository save occurs.

Answer 1

You have to register an InitBinder in your controller to let spring convert your date string to java.util.Date object and set it in command object. Include following in your controller :

 @InitBinder
    public void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) {
        SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM-dd-yyyy");
        sdf.setLenient(true);
        binder.registerCustomEditor(Date.class, new CustomDateEditor(sdf, true));
    }

Modify your jsp with :

<input type="text" path="dueDate" class= "date" name = "dueDate" value = "<fmt:formatDate value="${cForm.dueDate}" pattern="MM-dd-yyyy" />"/>

Answer 2

In your model class use the annotation provided by DateTimeFormat by spring

import org.springframework.format.annotation.DateTimeFormat;
import java.util.Date;

@DateTimeFormat(pattern = "MM-dd-yyyy")
private Date birthdate;

In your jsp the date will bind automatically without error

<form:input path="birthdate" cssClass="form-control" />

Note: date format must be dd-mm-yy i.e. 27-10-2017 if you use other format it will cause exception