Spring 4: @DateTimeFormat with Java 8 Date-Time API

@DateTimeFormat annotation that was introduced in Spring 3.0 as a part of Formatter SPI can be used to to parse and print localized field values in web applications. In Spring 4.0, @DateTimeFormat annotation can be used with Java 8 Date-Time API (java.time) out-of-the-box, without extra effort.

In Spring, field formatting can be configured by field type or annotation. To bind an annotation to a formatter AnnotationFormatterFactory must be implemented. Spring 4.0 brings Jsr310DateTimeFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory that formats Java 8 Date-Time fields annotated with the @DateTimeFormat. Supported field types are as follows:

• java.time.LocalDate
• java.time.LocalTime
• java.time.LocalDateTime
• java.time.ZonedDateTime
• java.time.OffsetDateTime
• java.time.OffsetTime

One can utilize all mentioned types in a form like below:

public class DatesForm {

    @DateTimeFormat(iso = ISO.DATE)
    private LocalDate localDate;

    @DateTimeFormat(iso = ISO.TIME)
    private LocalTime localTime;

    @DateTimeFormat(iso = ISO.TIME)
    private OffsetTime offsetTime;

    @DateTimeFormat(iso = ISO.DATE_TIME)
    private LocalDateTime localDateTime;

    @DateTimeFormat(iso = ISO.DATE_TIME)
    private ZonedDateTime zonedDateTime;

    @DateTimeFormat(iso = ISO.DATE_TIME)
    private OffsetDateTime offsetDateTime;
    
}

The form can be passed to the view and Spring will take care of proper formatting of the fields.

While specifying the formatting on the fields of types: java.time.LocalDate, java.time.LocalTime, java.time.OffsetTime you need to remember to properly configure @DateTimeFormat.

@DateTimeFormat declares that a field should be formatted as a date time and since java.time.LocalDate represents a date, and the other two represent time - you will get java.time.temporal.UnsupportedTemporalTypeException (e.g.: Unsupported field: ClockHourOfAmPm, Unsupported field: MonthOfYear) thrown by java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.