DBunit - Unable to typecast <1997/02/14> to TimeStamp

I'm doing an integration testing with DBUnit (2.49) + Hibernate (4.1.3) following this tutorial.

Production database : Oracle 10
Test database : Hsqldb 2.3.3

Context

My data contains the current format of date : yyyy/MM/dd. However,according to DBUnit faq, DBUnit only supports this format yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.fffffffff, so I had to create a new format for TimeStamp.

How I tried to fix it

I created a CustomTimeStampDataType based on this tutorial. I changed this part:

String formats[] = {"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm a", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.fffffffff"};

into this one:

    String formats[] = {"yyyy/MM/dd"};

I created a CustomeDataTypeFactory following the same tutorial. I only make it extend Oracle10DataTypeFactory rather than DefaultDatatTypeFactory.

In HibernateDBUnitTestCase, I override setDatabaseConfig() with the following:

@Override
protected void setUpDatabaseConfig(DatabaseConfig config){
    config.setProperty(DatabaseConfig.PROPERTY_DATATYPE_FACTORY, new CustomDataTypeFactory());
  }

But I got new errors

I ran a unit test and got this error.

org.dbunit.dataset.datatype.TypeCastException: Unable to typecast value <1997/02/14> of type <java.lang.String> to TIMESTAMP
    at org.dbunit.dataset.datatype.TimestampDataType.typeCast(TimestampDataType.java:120)
    at org.dbunit.dataset.datatype.TimestampDataType.setSqlValue(TimestampDataType.java:176)
    at org.dbunit.database.statement.SimplePreparedStatement.addValue(SimplePreparedStatement.java:73)
    at org.dbunit.operation.RefreshOperation$RowOperation.execute(RefreshOperation.java:189)
    at org.dbunit.operation.RefreshOperation.execute(RefreshOperation.java:113)
    at org.dbunit.AbstractDatabaseTester.executeOperation(AbstractDatabaseTester.java:190)
    at org.dbunit.AbstractDatabaseTester.onSetup(AbstractDatabaseTester.java:103)
    at org.dbunit.DatabaseTestCase.setUp(DatabaseTestCase.java:156)
    at test.HibernateDbUnitTestCase.setUp(HibernateDbUnitTestCase.java:85)
    at test.PlayerTest.setUp(PlayerTest.java:117)

Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Timestamp format must be yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss[.fffffffff]
    at java.sql.Timestamp.valueOf(Unknown Source)
    at org.dbunit.dataset.datatype.TimestampDataType.typeCast(TimestampDataType.java:116)
    ... 20 more

That was weird, it seemed like my CustomTimeStamp was not called, so I changed the date in the dataset using the default format : 1997-02-14 00:00:00.0, and ran the unit test again. Then I got:

org.dbunit.dataset.datatype.TypeCastException: Unable to typecast value <1997-02-14 00:00:00.0> of type <java.lang.String> to TIMESTAMP
    at test.CustomTimestampDataType.typeCast(CustomTimestampDataType.java:69)
    at test.CustomTimestampDataType.setSqlValue(CustomTimestampDataType.java:84)
    at org.dbunit.database.statement.SimplePreparedStatement.addValue(SimplePreparedStatement.java:73)
    at org.dbunit.operation.RefreshOperation$RowOperation.execute(RefreshOperation.java:189)
    at org.dbunit.operation.RefreshOperation.execute(RefreshOperation.java:113)
    at org.dbunit.AbstractDatabaseTester.executeOperation(AbstractDatabaseTester.java:190)
    at org.dbunit.AbstractDatabaseTester.onSetup(AbstractDatabaseTester.java:103)
    at org.dbunit.DatabaseTestCase.setUp(DatabaseTestCase.java:156)
    at test.HibernateDbUnitTestCase.setUp(HibernateDbUnitTestCase.java:85)
    at test.PlayerTest.setUp(PlayerTest.java:117)

That means CustomTimeStamp was actually called. Seems like, the problem stemed from DatabaseTestCase.setUp which somehow called the wrong TimeStampDataType.

How could I fix this issue?

My first option was to replace every yyyy/MM/dd into yyyy-mm-dd in the dataset using regular expressions. This worked fine, until I had to test a method that selected a date based on a request (so the format is yyyy-mm-dd) and compared it to the current date. ( so the format is yyyy / mm / dd). Hsqldb can't compare two dates with different format.
My second option was to decompile dbunit.jar, rewrite TimeStampDataType based on the tutorial. I'm unfamiliar with bytecode writing so before entering uncharted waters, I wanted to know if you had another solution.

Thank you in advance

Solution

Fixed it!

So I ended up using my second option. This is the detailed path for those who need it.

Download dbUnit.2.2.source.jar
Unzip the jar
Go to Eclipse, File > New > Java Project
Uncheck "Use default location"
In Location : specify the path to the new folder created from the jar
Click on Finish

Modify the TimestampDataType.java (if needed)

Instead of ts = java.sql.Timestamp.valueOf(stringValue); use the code below

    String formats[] =
     {"dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss.SS"}; //and more depending on your need
     Timestamp ts = null;
     for (int i = 0; i < formats.length; i++) 
     {
     SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(formats[i]);
     try {
         java.util.Date date = sdf.parse(stringValue);
         ts = new Timestamp(date.getTime());
         return ts;
     }
     catch( ParseException e) {
    }

Modify the DateDataType.java (if needed)

Instead of return java.sql.Date.valueOf(stringValue); , use the code below

String formats[] =
     {"dd/MM/yyyy"};  //and more depending on your need
     for (int i = 0; i < formats.length; i++) 
     {
     SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(formats[i]);

     try {

     java.util.Date date = sdf.parse(stringValue);
     java.sql.Date datesql = new java.sql.Date(date.getTime());
     return datesql;
     }
     catch( ParseException e) {
     }
     }

Right-click on your project, then Export
Select JAR file, then Next
Fill the export destination then Finish.
You just have to add this new jar to the library to make it work.