Why Entity bean field (java.util.Date) changes value after an update - jsf

Question

I have this Entity bean "User" that has a java.util.Date field. When I update any of the User's fields on the JSF page (i.e. phone number, company name, etc.) for some odd reason, the value for the date field changes in the database. My development environment is Netbeans 12.0, EclipseLink JPA, Apache Derby DB, and GlassFish 5.1 on Windows 10.
For example when I add a user (Bob) with the date of birth "1980-08-20", the JSF sets the value of "1/20/80 3:38 AM" for Bob's User entity, furthermore, no matter what time of the day, I add the user the "3:38 AM" is the fixed time always appended to the date. Later, when I retrieve Bob from the database and display its info on the JSF page, his date of birth is "1980-08-20" as expected. If I update any field (i.e. phone number) for Bob, the date of birth value of "1/20/80 3:38 AM" sent to the Session Bean LoginRequestSessionBean that handles the update (I verified it through the debugger). After the update is successfully completed and I retrieved Bob from the database and display on the JSF page then the date of birth for Bob is "1/20/80 12:00 AM" instead of "1/20/80 3:38 AM", hence I see "1980-30-19" instead of "1980-08-20"? Any idea?
Here is the SQL log when adding Bob to the system:
INSERT INTO PERSISTENCE_USER (ID, CELLPHONE, COMPANY, DATEOFBIRTH, FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, OFFICEPHONE, PASSWORD, USERID, USERROLE) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
bind => [5, (910)-509-3924, IBM, 1980-01-20, Bob, Nittelo, (818)-456-9012, password, Bobnitello, consumer]]]
Here is the SQL log when updating Bob
UPDATE PERSISTENCE_USER SET USERROLE = ?, CELLPHONE = ?, DATEOFBIRTH = ?, LASTNAME = ?, USERID = ?, FIRSTNAME = ?, OFFICEPHONE = ?, COMPANY = ? WHERE (ID = ?)
bind => [consumer, (910)-509-3924, 1980-01-20, Nittelo, Bobnitello, Bob, (818)-456-9011, IBM, 5]]]
I have a JSF page that displays all users and allows updates to the user information. There is another JSF page that allows adding users to the system. Here is the source code:
#NamedQuery(
name = "updateUser",
query = "UPDATE User u SET u.userId=?1, u.userRole=?2, u.cellPhone=?3, u.company=?4, "
+ "u.dateOfBirth=?5, u.firstName=?6, u.lastName=?7, u.officePhone=?8 "
+ "WHERE u.id = ?9"
)
public class User implements Serializable {
#Id
#GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
private Long id;
#NotNull
private String userId;
#NotNull
private String password;
#NotNull
private String userRole;
#NotNull
private String firstName;
#NotNull
private String lastName;
#Temporal(TemporalType.DATE)
private Date dateOfBirth;
#NotNull
private String officePhone;
private String cellPhone;
#NotNull
private String company;
............
}
This is the class interacting with the database
Stateless
public class LoginRequestSessionBean {
public void addUser(User u) throws ListServiceException {
try {
em.persist(u);
} catch (Exception e) {
throw (ExceptionHandler.wrapException(
e, logger,
"Error occured when adding a user "+u.getUserId()));
}
}
public void removeUser(User u) throws ListServiceException{
try{
if(!em.contains(u)){
u = em.merge(u);
}
em.remove(u);
} catch (Exception e) {
throw (ExceptionHandler.wrapException(e, logger,"Error occured while removing a user");
}
}
public void updateUser(User u) throws ListServiceException{
try {
updatedRow = em.createNamedQuery("updateUser")
.setParameter(1, u.getUserId())
.setParameter(2, u.getUserRole())
.setParameter(3, u.getCellPhone())
.setParameter(4, u.getCompany())
.setParameter(5, u.getDateOfBirth())
.setParameter(6, u.getFirstName())
.setParameter(7, u.getLastName())
.setParameter(8, u.getOfficePhone())
.setParameter(9, u.getId())
.executeUpdate();
} catch (Exception e) {
throw ExceptionHandler.wrapException(e, logger, "Error occured while updating user");
}
}
public User getUser(Long id) throws ListServiceException{
User user;
try {
user = em.find(User.class, id);
} catch (Exception e) {
throw ExceptionHandler.wrapException(e,logger,"Error occured in"+className+".getuser()");
}
return user;
}
}
This is the relevant part of the Update JSF page handling the date column
<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">#{bundle.loginmanagementdob}</f:facet>
<h:inputText
p:type="date"
value = "#{l.dateOfBirth}"
size ="15" rendered = "#{l.canUpdate}" >
<f:convertDateTime type="date"
pattern = "yyyy-mm-dd" />
</h:inputText>
<h:outputText value = "#{l.dateOfBirth}"
rendered = "#{not l.canUpdate}" >
<f:convertDateTime
type="date"
pattern = "yyyy-mm-dd" />
</h:outputText>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<f:facet name = "header">Update</f:facet>
<h:commandLink value = "Update"
disabled="#{login.currentUser.userRole == 'delete' or login.currentUser.userRole == 'consumer'}"
action = "#{loginManagment.updateLinkAction(l)}"
rendered = "#{not l.canUpdate}">
</h:commandLink>
</h:column>
<f:facet name="footer">
<h:panelGroup style="display: block; border-color: aquamarine;text-align: center;">
<h:commandButton id="update"
tabindex="1"
value="Save updates"
action="#{loginManagment.saveUpdate}" />
</h:panelGroup>
</f:facet>
This the managed bean for the JSF page:
#Named
#SessionScoped
public class LoginManagment implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1009L;
private LoginRequestSessionBean request;
private final ResourceBundle bundle; //application resource bundle
public LoginManagment() {
//Get the application's resource bundle
bundle = ResourceBundle.getBundle("webmessages");
}
public List<User> getUsers() {
if ((users == null) || refresh) {
try {
users = request.getUsers();
} catch (EJBException e) {
FacesMessage errMsg = new FacesMessage(e.getMessage());
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, errMsg);
}
refresh = false;
}
return users;
}
public void resetUpdateLink() {
users
.stream()
.filter(e -> e.getCanUpdate() == true)
.forEach(e -> e.setCanUpdate(false));
}
public String updateLinkAction(User u) {
u.setCanUpdate(true);
return null;
}
public String saveUpdate() {
Function<User, User> update = n -> {
request.updateUser(n);
return n;
};
try {
users
.stream()
.filter(e -> e.getCanUpdate() == true)
.forEach(update);
resetUpdateLink();
FacesMessage msg = new FacesMessage(bundle.getString("loginmanagementupdatesuccess"));
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, msg);
} catch (ListServiceException e) {
FacesMessage errMsg = new FacesMessage(e.getMessage());
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, errMsg);
}
logger.exiting(className, "saveUpdate()");
return null;
}
}
Here is the relevant part of the add user JSF page that deals with the Date field:
<h:outputLabel id="adddoblabel"
for="adduserdob"
style="color: green; font: caption; font-size: large;
font-family: cursive; border-color: aquamarine"
value="#{bundle.adduserdob}" />
<h:inputText id="adduserdob"
p:type="date"
label="Date Of Birth "
title="Date Of Birth"
style="border-color: aquamarine"
value="#{addUser.dateOfBirth}"
required="true"
requiredMessage="#{bundle.adduserdoberror}"
maxlength="30" >
<f:convertDateTime type="date"
pattern = "yyyy-mm-dd" />
</h:inputText>
<f:facet name="footer">
<h:panelGroup style="display: block; border-color: aquamarine;text-align: center;">
<h:commandButton id="addusercommandbutton"
value="Add"
immediate="false"
style="font-size: large; font-family: cursive"
action="#{addUser.addAction}">
</h:commandButton>
</h:panelGroup>
</f:facet>
</h:panelGrid>
Here is the managed bean for the JSF add user page:
#Named
#SessionScoped
public class AddUser implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1100L;
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
private Date dateOfBirth;
#EJB
private LoginRequestSessionBean request;
private ResourceBundle bundle; //application resource bundle
public AddUser() {
bundle = ResourceBundle.getBundle("webmessages");
}
public Date getDateOfBirth() {
return dateOfBirth;
}
public void setDateOfBirth(Date date){
dateOfBirth=date;
}
private void clearDataField() {
this.password = null;
this.userId = null;
this.role = null;
this.cellPhone = null;
this.officePhone = null;
this.company = null;
this.dateOfBirth = null;
this.firstName = null;
this.lastName = null;
}
public void addAction() {
try {
User u = new User(getUserId(), getPassword(), getRole(), getFirstName(), getLastName()
,getDateOfBirth(), getOfficePhone(),getCellPhone(),getCompany());
request.addUser(u);
clearDataField();
FacesMessage successMsg = new FacesMessage(bundle.getString("addusersuccess"));
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, successMsg);
} catch (EJBException e) {
FacesMessage successMsg = new FacesMessage(e.getMessage());
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, successMsg);
}
}
}

Answer 1

It's because you've configured the date converter to interpret the part between hyphens as minutes.
<f:convertDateTime type="date" pattern="yyyy-mm-dd" />
According to its documentation the pattern symbols are specified in the documentation of java.text.SimpleDateFormat. This documentation says that you should be using M for months.
Letter
Date or time component
Presentation
Examples
M
Month in year (context sensitive)
Month
July; Jul; 07
m
Minute in hour
Number
30
So, adjust the pattern accordingly:
<f:convertDateTime type="date" pattern="yyyy-MM-dd" />
Unrelated to the concrete problem: the type attribute is ignored when the pattern attribute is specified. The below declaration is equally fine.
<f:convertDateTime pattern="yyyy-MM-dd" />
This is also specified in its documentation.
If a pattern has been specified, its syntax must conform the rules specified by java.text.SimpleDateFormat. Such a pattern will be used to parse, and the type, dateStyle, and timeStyle properties will be ignored.