Spring -roo JSON REST Controllers Manage Date Fields

Question

I have a data object that I use in two ways: I populate the table with some of my data when the page loads, and when you click on the row of this column, I AJAX look at the details of this element and display them in the form fields. I use Spring-Roo generated server-side REST endpoints and Backbone.js on the client.

When the table loads, the date fields have the format that I expect based on my MySQL database ("yyyy-MM-dd"). When I get AJAX data, the date fields come to me as Unix time values ​​(for example, "1323666000000").

I can convert it on the client side, but it's stupid. Any idea how I can get my json controller not to do this?

I tried pushing these fields into my .java file and messing around with @DateTimeFormat annotation, but I don't see that this has any meaning.

Answer 1

You can convert the date to any format that is required for your JSON response.

In your case, you always used the default JSON date converter for fields like java.util.Date . This is basically what is generated for you using Spring Roo. Take a look at your aspects of * _Roo_Json and you will find smth. eg:

 public java.lang.String PizzaOrder.toJson() { return new JSONSerializer().exclude("*.class").serialize(this); } 

Such an implementation uses the flexjson.transformer.BasicDateTransformer class to convert the date for you. It runs as follows:

 public class BasicDateTransformer extends AbstractTransformer { public void transform(Object object) { getContext().write(String.valueOf(((Date) object).getTime())); } } 

You want to use another, more powerful transformer. Fortunately, it comes with your Roo and is called flexjson.transformer.DateTransformer . Now, to format dates correctly, simply replace the default new transformer, for example. eg:

 public java.lang.String PizzaOrder.toJson() { return new JSONSerializer().exclude("*.class") .transform(new DateTransformer("MM/dd/yyyy"), Date.class) .serialize(this); } 

What all: -)

Know that you can also apply different Date transformations (and not only) to different fields, such as:

 transform(new DateTransformer("MM/dd/yyyy"), "person.birthday") 

For more information on flexjson, see the FLEXJSON project page .