5.7 Configuring a global date & time format

By default, date and time fields that are not annotated with @DateTimeFormat are converted from strings using the DateFormat.SHORT style. If you prefer, you can change this by defining your own global format.

You will need to ensure that Spring does not register default formatters, and instead you should register all formatters manually. Use theorg.springframework.format.datetime.joda.JodaTimeFormatterRegistrar or org.springframework.format.datetime.DateFormatterRegistrar class depending on whether you use the Joda Time library.

For example, the following Java configuration will register a global ' `yyyyMMdd’ format. This example does not depend on the Joda Time library:

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

    @Bean
    public FormattingConversionService conversionService() {

        // Use the DefaultFormattingConversionService but do not register defaults
        DefaultFormattingConversionService conversionService = new DefaultFormattingConversionService(false);

        // Ensure @NumberFormat is still supported
        conversionService.addFormatterForFieldAnnotation(new NumberFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory());

        // Register date conversion with a specific global format
        DateFormatterRegistrar registrar = new DateFormatterRegistrar();
        registrar.setFormatter(new DateFormatter("yyyyMMdd"));
        registrar.registerFormatters(conversionService);

        return conversionService;
    }
}

If you prefer XML based configuration you can use a FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean. Here is the same example, this time using Joda Time:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd>

    <bean id="conversionService" class="org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean">
        <property name="registerDefaultFormatters" value="false" />
        <property name="formatters">
            <set>
                <bean class="org.springframework.format.number.NumberFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory" />
            </set>
        </property>
        <property name="formatterRegistrars">
            <set>
                <bean class="org.springframework.format.datetime.joda.JodaTimeFormatterRegistrar">
                    <property name="dateFormatter">
                        <bean class="org.springframework.format.datetime.joda.DateTimeFormatterFactoryBean">
                            <property name="pattern" value="yyyyMMdd"/>
                        </bean>
                    </property>
                </bean>
            </set>
        </property>
    </bean>
</beans>

Joda Time provides separate distinct types to represent date, time and date-time values. The dateFormatter, timeFormatter and dateTimeFormatter properties of the JodaTimeFormatterRegistrar should be used to configure the different formats for each type. The DateTimeFormatterFactoryBean provides a convenient way to create formatters.

If you are using Spring MVC remember to explicitly configure the conversion service that is used. For Java based @Configuration this means extending theWebMvcConfigurationSupport class and overriding the mvcConversionService() method. For XML you should use the 'conversion-service' attribute of themvc:annotation-driven element. See Section 18.16.3, “Conversion and Formatting” for details.