Velocity and Date Tokens

[Anonymous]

Hi Nation!

We are working on a velocity script to make a date formatted in a more natural language like "We will expect you on December 13". Unfortunatelly, when I try to use the line 
#set( $mydate = ${convert.parseDate(${lead.mydatetoken},"YYYY-MM-dd")})
The variable $mydate is empty. I realized this has to do with the fact the string is not always YYYY-MM-dd, it can change. I still haven't figured out why, I believe it has to do with the fact that our users have different locales.

My question is... is there a way to get from the actual lead token, in this case ${lead.mydatetoken}, a definitive value regardless of locale? just as you would in other programming languages where you would get a long counting the seconds from midnight January 1st 1970? 

Any help will be very appreciated, thanks!

[Josh_Hill13]

Why can't you use a text my token that has December 13?

[Brennan_McAdam2]

Hi Carlos,

Looks to me as if you are getting the vaue from lead correctly.  However, you should using the .toDate() method (if available). http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22150952/string-to-date-with-convert

Once you have the date in the object, format it with .format().  http://velocity.apache.org/tools/releases/2.0/javadoc/org/apache/velocity/tools/generic/DateTool.html#format(java.lang.String, java.lang.String, java.lang.Object, java.util.Locale, java.util.TimeZone)

Just piecing this together, as I am looking for a test bed for velocity scripts.