MongoDB, Java: Retrieve date property as UTC - java

I'm saving some entities to a Mongo database, these have Joda DateTime properties which have UTC set as a timezone. While saving works fine and I see the properties with correct values in the collection, once I retrieve the entities through Java the timezone gets set to UTC+2 again.
This is in the collection:
"created" : ISODate("2013-07-26T20:36:57.890Z")
I'm using Spring-Data-MongoDB to access the database.
Category category = mongoTemplate.findById(id, Category.class);
And I end up with this:
2013-07-26T23:05:56.439+02:00
Is there a way to tell Mongo do return the timezone stored in the date?
Hints appreciated, thank you!

The driver is returning what the database has as a java.util.Date object. It knows nothing of the timezone that time represents. It does not store the Timezone anywhere. Mongo Shell always presents a time value as UTC.
That being said, if you want to work with it in your application code as UTC always, I think there is a way to tell the JODA library to do this: Defaulting date time zone to UTC for Jodatime's DateTime

Related

Hibernate Ignores DB Timezone Info when Binding to Java Timestamp Object

I have some Dates stored in Oracle with Oracle's TIMESTAMP(3) as its datatype. Now I'm writing a Spring boot app to read those values back. The code is like:
HibernateCallback callback = new HibernateCallback() {
public Object doInHibernate(Session session) throws HibernateException {
Query query = session.createSQLQuery("SELECT date_field FROM some_table WHERE some_conditions");
return query.list();
}
};
So:
List results = (List)getHibernateTemplate().execute(callback);
// suppose there's only one row and one column returned
Timestamp ts = result.get(0)[0];
returns me the Java Timestamp object automatically created by Hibernate. The problem is that, when constructing the object, it ignores the timezone stored in Oracle, but instead uses JVM's default timezone. I tested is by setting different timezones for the JVM, and each time it generates a different timestamp.
It's obviously wrong. The Date should be unique on the time line. It shouldn't depend on JVM's timezone. I'm wondering what's the correct way to include the DB's timezone info when parsing the date. Right now it seems it's just using the String representation stored in Oracle and parse it with JMV's timezone. I'm using Hibernate 4.3.4.Final.
PS: The actual query is high customized so I have to write raw SQL.
Basically, that's not even an issue with Hibernate but with JDBC. By default, JDBC Driver will use system time zone on which JVM is running. If you are connecting to the DB server at a different time zone or even if you want to be independent of the current timezone of the system it is a good idea to set JDBC Time Zone explicitly.
You can use hibernate.jdbc.time_zone property to set the timezone or do it at runtime via.
session = sessionFactory.withOptions()
.jdbcTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"))
.openSession();
Also for Oracle, I would say you can use the TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE which will respect you JDBC client time zone.
The problem is with Oracle column data type you are using, If you go to official oracle docs, link, you will notice the TIMESTAMP doesn't respect timezone, so you should go with with either TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE or TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE.
It seems the issue is with few concepts of date handling
Dates in DB should be in UTC, if they are to be used in multiple timezone.
Java program should convert the dates to required timezone.
If you take your date in database as based on UTC, and then check the output of your hibernate query, you should see that date is changed as per JVM's timezone.
If you want the same date back (as was in DB), maybe you should convert the date to UTC timezone.
Now, you can do either of following:
Set the JVM's timezone same as the database record timezone. Not recommended
Change your dates in database as per UTC, and let the dates be changed to JVM's timezone. Recommended

Does Oracle persist Java Calendar into TIMESTAMP with timezone?

We are persisting a Java Calendar object into an Oracle TIMESTAMP column using the getTimeInMillis() method. Does Oracle persist this data with a time zone?
I'm assuming not as we are not using the TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE data type. If not, when you query SELECT MY_TIMESTAMP FROM MYTABLE what timezone will Oracle associate with this field?
And what is the correct way to 'cast' this to the timezone you are interested in (ie: UTC)?
getTimeInMillis()
is independent of the calendar system and the timezone. So in whichever timezone you specify the time in, the time is not gonna vary and getTimeInMillis() will get the accurate time.
And on the persistence -
yes the oracle persist the data with the timezone. But it will add the timezone offset to the value saved.
So that's brings us to the next question of choosing the right
timezone -
it is ideal to choose the native timezone. As this scenario is a combination of oracle and java its best to use UTC
Cheers!

Copying TIMESTAMP to DATETIME on MySQL with Hibernate

I have these two classes
class Source {
// mapped to TIMESTAMP
#Version
#Column(columnDefinition="TIMESTAMP(3) DEFAULT '2016-01-01'")
Instant myInstant;
}
class Destination {
// mapped to DATETIME
#Basic(optional=true)
Instant myInstant;
}
When using Hibernate, I assign
destination.myInstant = source.myInstant;
and then the stored value is smaller by one hour than the original - both according to the command line MySQL client and in Java. My current timezone is UTC+1, so the reason is obviously a timezone conversion.
There are a few places where this can be fixed, but I'm looking for the best practice. The server should work world-wide, so it should continue to use UTC internally, right?
Should I just change the column type to TIMESTAMP? Then, why does Instant by default map to DATETIME?
According to this article, Instant does map to TIMESTAMP, but in my case it did not. Why?
If you want to work with timezones and Java 8 I would recommend using ZonedDateTime or OffsetTimeZone (the latter being prefered when working with Hibernate). For older versions use Calendar.
When you instance it should go by default with the timezone of your computer.
Check if the database is timestamp with or without timezone.
The default you set is also without timezone, and if it is "with timezone" it should automatically add the database's offset.
I hope some of this works. Here's how I did in one of my projects.
#Column(name = "registration_time")
private OffsetDateTime registrationTime;
[...]
subscriber.setRegistrationTime(OffsetDateTime.now());
In MySQL 5 & above, TIMESTAMP values are converted from the current time zone to UTC for storage, and converted back from UTC to the current time zone for retrieval. This occurs only for the TIMESTAMP data type but not for DATETIME. This is the reason you are seeing the difference while assigning a TIMESTAMP to DATETIME. So, having both the columns of same type should work. Hibernate by default maps InstantType to database TIMESTAMP type. Though you could use it for both TIMESTAMP and DATETIME in MYSQL, they are handled differently.

Starting a new project, how to setup UTC time correctly in java with hibernate and mysql

So I am starting a new project using java, hibernate and mysql (spring mvc).
At the database level, what column type should I use?
At the java level, I believe I should be using Joda time.
My users table will store their time offset, which I will then convert/format at the UI level using the UTC value from the database.
With hibernate, do I really need that joda time hibernate plugin or is adding joda time enough?
Can someone tell me what methods I will be needing, or an article that goes over things with source code?
I think you may define your column in database as TIMESTAMP and map in Hibernate using TimeStamp object.
Use SimpleDateFormat in Java side to get the date time string in UTC as below:
DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/DD/yyyy hh:mm a");
formatter.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
Date date = new Date(timeStamp.getTime());
String dateString = formatter.format(date);
System.out.println(dateString);
At database level you can use datetime or timestamp (in MySQL) as column type. In Java you should use java.sql.Timestamp.
Joda time is possible but not absolutely necessary.
You can store the database time values either as UTC or as local time. I highly recommend to you using UTC. In the jdbc connect string (i. e. in hibernate.cfg.xml) you can define if the date always is in UTC or in local time, and JDBC does a time zone conversion if necessary (other time zone than UTC or local time can't be defined on JDBC level and will be much trouble if used).
When done like this you don't need special methods for the time zone conversion except them of the Java classes Calendar, Timezone and DateFormat.

Hibernate date conversion

I have a wierd hibernate related issue while setting a date field in an entity.
The date is interpreted as UTC in the java program (i did a System.out to make sure the date assigned is in 'UTC'. However, when hibernate actually persists to the database, the date is converted to local time and stored)
ex. the value has been set in the entity setter as "2009-09-09 00:08:08" - GMT
the actual value persisted to the database is "2009-09-08 08:08:08" - eastern time US.
I am unable to find out where and why this is happening and how to prevent it. Thanks
P.S. I am using joda date library and annotate the field with
#org.hibernate.annotations.Type(type = "org.joda.time.contrib.hibernate.PersistentDateTime")
However, when hibernate actually persists to the database, the date is converted to local time and stored) ex. the value has been set in the entity setter as "2009-09-09 00:08:08" - GMT the actual value persisted to the database is "2009-09-08 08:08:08" - eastern time US.
Ok, first, whatever column type are you using to store your date in MySQL (TIMESTAMP or DATETIME), neither stores the time zone. From Re: Storing timezone with datetime:
TIMESTAMP is seconds since 1970, sitting in 4 bytes. It is stored in GMT. That is, the TZ offset is applied as you store a value, then reapplied when you fetch it. (...)
DATETIME is an 8-byte string of digits "yyyymmddhhmmss". (...)
And second, unless a buggy behavior, my understanding is that the conversion is supposed be done either by the server or by the JDBC driver depending on the the server time zone settings so that you don't get inconsistent data.
In both cases, my point is that storing "2009-09-09 00:08:08" - GMT or "2009-09-08 08:08:08" - eastern time US from Java should yield to the same value in the database.
However, it looks like a different conversion is done when displaying them. This begs the question: how did you actually check the value of the "persisted date". Does the "problem" occur in your SQL client? In Java code?
References
9.6. MySQL Server Time Zone Support
21.3.4.1. Driver/Datasource Class Names, URL Syntax and Configuration Properties for Connector/J
Bug #15604: TimeZone discarded storing java.util.Calendar into DATETIME
MySQL documentation for DateTime says "MySQL retrieves and displays DATETIME values in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format". That means mysql converts the 'milliseconds since epoch' to the above format. So now my question becomes, is timezone info also stored in mysql?
I've updated my initial answer (which was not totally accurate/exhaustive). Whether you're using DATETIME or TIMESTAMP, the answer is no.
Another observation I made is, the above date 'conversion' issue exists only when Im setting the date in the Java application. If I create a mysql trigger to update/set date using 'UTC_TIMESTAMP()', the date is displayed in the 'UTC' time.
The UTC_TIMESTAMP() function always returns the current UTC date and time.
What I'd like to know is:
How did you "reveal" the problem? With a SQL client or from Java?
What is the local time zone of the JVM?
What is the MySQL Server time zone?
What is the version of the MySQL JDBC Driver?
Could you do a test with raw JDBC?
In order to treat dates as UTC in the DB (for read/write), you can use this small open source library DbAssist. It uses a custom UtcDateType in order to map java.util.Date fields in your entities, so that they are treated by Hibernate as UTC in the DB. Since you are using JPA annotations, you would use the following dependency:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.montrosesoftware</groupId>
<artifactId>DbAssist-5.2.2</artifactId>
<version>1.0-RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
Applying the fix is easy, for example, when using Spring Boot, you have to make sure that you have #EnableAutoConfiguration annotation before the application class. If you are using another Hibernate version, just refer to github wiki to find the proper version of the fix and the installation guide. You can also read more about the time zone shift issue in this article.
This behaviour of Joda Time Contrib is fixed in my project Usertype for Joda Time and JSR310. See http://usertype.sourceforge.net/ which is practically otherwise a drop in replacement for JodaTime Hibernate.
I have written about this issue: http://blog.jadira.co.uk/blog/2010/5/1/javasqldate-types-and-the-offsetting-problem.html
Hope this helps,
Chris

Categories