Grails databinding date format

Question

I have a problem within a grails 2.3 application, when it comes to data binding and correct date formats.

I use a datepicker (jQuery ui) that provides a <input type="hidden" /> that holds the selected date in ISO_8601 format. It will post a value like this: 2015-08-14 to the controller. The form itself and the post result is correct.

I use this simplified model:

class Thing {

    DateTime lastUpdated

    static constraints = {
        lastUpdated nullable: true
    }
}

---

when I try to create an entity, I will face this error message:

Invalid format: "2015-08-14" is malformed at "15-08-14"

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A first research lead me to this change in the Config.groovy:

jodatime.format.html5 = true

(Link 3 in the list below)

Appying this leads to change. Now the error message is:

Invalid format: "2015-08-14" is too short (flip table)

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Another try was to change the databinding.dateFormats to this (also in the Config.groovy):

grails.databinding.dateFormats = [ "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.S","yyyy-MM-dd'T'hh:mm:ss'Z'", "yyyy-MM-dd"]

Which has no effect what so ever.

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For my understanding a given date format should automatically be marshaled in a dateTime object. What configuration did I miss?

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Here are relative question, that sadly did not help me:

• bind date to command object in Grails
• GORM default Date format when sending date to Grails
• Grails unable to unmarshall date/time from JSON back into joda DateTime

Answer 1

You should add next line in config.groovy

jodatime { format.org.joda.time.DateTime = "yyyy-MM-dd" }  

But if you don't need time in this field, it's better to use LocalDate instead of DateTime here.

class Thing {  
   LocalDate lastUpdated;

...

jodatime {   
   format.org.joda.time.DateTime = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss" 
   format.org.joda.time.LocalDate = "yyyy-MM-dd" 
}  

So you will use DateTime where you need date with time and LocalDate where date is enough