[FIXED] Spring + Hibernate + MS SQL server - UTC time zone

Issue

I have developed simple application with Spring 4.2.5 + Hibernate 5.1.0 - database system is MS SQL Server 2014.

From few days I am struggling with correct storing time + timezone in database.

Requirements that I need to fulfill is:

1. Save all dates in UTC time zone.
2. Store timezone in database column value.

To achieve it I created model called MyComment:

@Entity
@Table(name = "MY_COMMENT")
@EntityListeners(value = { MyCommentListener.class })
@Audited
public class MyComment implements Serializable {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name = "ID")
    private Long id;

    @Column(name = "DATE_", nullable = false)
    private Timestamp date;

    ...
}

To enforce saving dates in UTC time zone I used Jadira framework:

    hibProperties.put("jadira.usertype.autoRegisterUserTypes", true);
    hibProperties.put("jadira.usertype.javaZone", "UTC");
    hibProperties.put("jadira.usertype.databaseZone", "UTC");

However during each create/update operation of MyComment object, MyCommentListener is getting date from my local timezone (not UTC date!):

public class MyCommentListener {

    @PreUpdate
    @PrePersist
    public void setLastUpdate(MyComment myComment) {
        myComment.setDate(new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis()));
    }

}

Do you know how can I solve this issue?

1. Should I use other date type in my model? Different than Timestamp?
2. What kind of type should be DATE_ column in MS SQL server database?

I will appreciate any help. Thank you.

Solution

It was very strange for me that there's no property in Spring to set up default TimeZone - at least I do not know about it.

After some googling I found out that the best place in Spring to set time zone is WebApplicationInitializer, so I prepared following code:

public class MyWebApplicationInitializer implements WebApplicationInitializer {

    @Override
    public void onStartup(final ServletContext servletContext) throws ServletException {
        setupTimeZone();
    }

    private void setupTimeZone() {
        TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
    }
}

Answered By - bontade
Answer Checked By - Senaida (JavaFixing Volunteer)