Retrofit GSON serialize Date from json string into java.util.date

Here is how I did it:

Create DateTime class extending Date and then write a custom deserializer:

public class DateTime extends java.util.Date {

    public DateTime(long readLong) {
        super(readLong);
    }

    public DateTime(Date date) {
        super(date.getTime());
    }       
}

Now for the deserializer part where we register both Date and DateTime converters:

public static Gson gsonWithDate(){
    final GsonBuilder builder = new GsonBuilder();

    builder.registerTypeAdapter(Date.class, new JsonDeserializer<Date>() {  

        final DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");  
        @Override  
        public Date deserialize(JsonElement json, Type typeOfT, JsonDeserializationContext context) throws JsonParseException {  
            try {  
                return df.parse(json.getAsString());  
            } catch (final java.text.ParseException e) {  
                e.printStackTrace();  
                return null;  
            }  
        }
    });

    builder.registerTypeAdapter(DateTime.class, new JsonDeserializer<DateTime>() {  

        final DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");  
        @Override  
        public DateTime deserialize(JsonElement json, Type typeOfT, JsonDeserializationContext context) throws JsonParseException {  
            try {  
                return new DateTime(df.parse(json.getAsString()));  
            } catch (final java.text.ParseException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();  
                return null;  
            }  
        }
    });

    return builder.create();
}

And when you create your RestAdapter, do the following:

new RestAdapter.Builder().setConverter(gsonWithDate());

Your Foo should look like this:

class Foo {
    Date date;
    DateTime created_at;
}

Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
    .setDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss")
    .create();

RestAdapter restAdapter = new RestAdapter.Builder()
    .setEndpoint(API_BASE_URL)
    .setConverter(new GsonConverter.create(gson))
    .build();

Or the Kotlin equivalent:

val gson = GsonBuilder().setDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss").create()
RestAdapter restAdapter = Retrofit.Builder()
    .baseUrl(API_BASE_URL)
    .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create(gson))
    .build()
    .create(T::class.java)

You can set your customized Gson parser to retrofit. More here: Retrofit Website

Look at Ondreju's response to see how to implement this in retrofit 2.

@gderaco's answer updated to retrofit 2.0:

Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
.setDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss")
.create();

Retrofit retrofitAdapter = new Retrofit.Builder()
.baseUrl(API_BASE_URL)
.addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create(gson))
.build();

Gson can handle only one datetime format (those specified in builder) plus the iso8601 if parsing with custom format is not possible. So, a solution could be to write your custom deserializer. To solve your problem I defined:

package stackoverflow.questions.q18473011;

import java.util.Date;

public class Foo {

    Date date;
    Date created_at;

    public Foo(Date date, Date created_at){
       this.date = date;
       this.created_at = created_at;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
       return "Foo [date=" + date + ", created_at=" + created_at + "]";
    }

}

with this deserializer:

package stackoverflow.questions.q18473011;

import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.text.*;
import java.util.Date;

import com.google.gson.*;

public class FooDeserializer implements JsonDeserializer<Foo> {

     public Foo deserialize(JsonElement json, Type typeOfT, JsonDeserializationContext context) throws JsonParseException {

        String a = json.getAsJsonObject().get("date").getAsString();
        String b = json.getAsJsonObject().get("created_at").getAsString();

        SimpleDateFormat sdfDate = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
        SimpleDateFormat sdfDateWithTime = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'");

        Date date, created;
        try {
           date = sdfDate.parse(a);
           created = sdfDateWithTime.parse(b);
        } catch (ParseException e) {
           throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }

        return new Foo(date, created);
    }

}

Final step is to create a Gson instance with right adapter:

package stackoverflow.questions.q18473011;

import com.google.gson.*;

public class Question {

    /**
     * @param args
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
      String s = "{ \"date\": \"2013-07-16\",    \"created_at\": \"2013-07-16T22:52:36Z\"}";


      GsonBuilder builder = new GsonBuilder();
      builder.registerTypeAdapter(Foo.class, new FooDeserializer());

      Gson gson = builder.create();
      Foo myObject = gson.fromJson(s, Foo.class);

      System.out.println("Result: "+myObject);
    }

}

My result:

Result: Foo [date=Tue Jul 16 00:00:00 CEST 2013, created_at=Tue Jul 16 22:52:36 CEST 2013]