Convert java.util.Date value to string using EL - jsf

Question

How to compare java.util.Date value with String using JSTL and EL?
This is the model:
private Date myDate; // Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1001
This is the view:
<c:if test="#{bean.myDate eq 'Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1001'}">
<h:outputText value="#{bean.myDate}">
<f:convertDateTime pattern="EEEE dd MMM yyyy # HH:mm:ss" />
</h:outputText>
</c:if>
However the condition always evaluates false. How is how can I solve it?

Answer 1

If your environment supports EL 2.2, just call its toString() method directly.
<c:if test="#{bean.myDate.toString() eq 'Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1001'}">
If yours doesn't, convert it to String first by inlining it as body of <c:set>.
<c:set var="myDate">#{bean.myDate}</c:set>
<c:if test="#{myDate eq 'Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CET 1001'}">
Unrelated to the concrete problem, this is a rather strange way of comparing dates. It's very sensitive to changes in locale and timezone (if the webpage visitor uses a non-English locale and your webapp supports non-English locales, then the test on Wed Jan would fail and if the webserver is moved to non-CET timezone, then the test on CET would fail). Don't you rather want to compare it on year 1001 directly or a fixed pattern such as 1001-01-01 or so? Further I also wonder why you don't do the test in the rendered attribute of the JSF <h:outputText> component.

Answer 2

in jsf 1.2
this code works for me :
<webuijsf:button
actionExpression="#{guiRettificaBilPuntuale_2.button4_action}"
id="button4" text="#{bundle.TastoModificaRiga}"
rendered="#{ bilDetailsTable.value.settStatus eq 'N' or bilDetailsTable.value.starttime eq aLGUISessionBean_01.monthCurrentPublBilDate ? false : true}">
and starttime and monthCurrentPublBilDate are both dates (java.Date) so you can transform string in Date and compare them