Dates and forms with JDBC - there must be a better way...

Question

Hi,
I have a backing bean (CustomerBean) extended from class Customer that talks to a DOA for access to a JDBC pooled resource.
I am having trouble getting an elegant solution for getting dates in and out of the DB using JSF forms.
My Customer class defines the date as java.sql.Date - passing that through to the form gives errors during validation. The work around I managed to get working is for the CustomerBean to have a method that converts a java.util.Date to a java.sql.Date.
public void setStartDate(java.util.Date startDate) {
if (startDate == null)
super.setStart(null);
else
super.setStart(new java.sql.Date(startDate.getYear(),startDate.getMonth(),startDate.getDate()));
and
public java.util.Date getStartDate() {
return super.getStart();
using:
<h:outputLabel value="Start"/>
<h:inputText id="startDate" value="#{customerBean.startDate}" required="false">
<f:convertDateTime pattern="dd/MM/yyyy"/>
</h:inputText>
<h:message for="startDate" styleClass="message"/>
the super property 'start' is a java.sql.Date. The line that bothers me is:
super.setStart(new java.sql.Date(startDate.getYear(),startDate.getMonth(),startDate.getDate()));
it uses deprecated constructor. (java.sql.Date(int year, int month, int day);
Where should I be looking for a more elegant solution? (GregorianCalendar? Anything else?)
Thanks in advance,
- David

Answer 1

Thanks...
I did it this way:
Customer.java has...
private java.sql.Date start;
and getters and setters...
CustomerBean.java extends Customer, has no field but the getters and setters...
public java.util.Date getStartDate() {
return super.getStart();
public void setStartDate(java.util.Date startDate) {
if (startDate == null)
super.setStart(null);
else
super.setStart(new java.sql.Date(startDate.getTime()));
seems to work and my customer has it's dates as sql dates (that way I only convert dates when I actually need them updateable on screen rather than each read of a customer record from the DB.)
To display the date I use
<h:outputText value="#{customerBean.startDate}">
<f:convertDateTime dateStyle="full"/>
</h:outputText>
To edit it, I use
<h:inputText id="startDate" value="#{customerBean.startDate}" required="false">
<f:convertDateTime dateStyle="short"/>
</h:inputText>
Is this a valid or recommended way?
- David