How to allow null date in Spring 3 MVC

[eradan]

I've defined a global formatter for date bindings:

<annotation-driven conversion-service="conversionService" />

<beans:bean id="conversionService"
	class="org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean">
	<beans:property name="converters">
		<beans:list>
			...
		</beans:list>
	</beans:property>
	<beans:property name="formatters">
		<beans:set>
			<beans:bean id="dateFormatter"
				class="org.springframework.format.datetime.DateFormatter">
				<beans:constructor-arg><beans:value>dd/MM/yyyy</beans:value></beans:constructor-arg>
			</beans:bean>
	</beans:set>
	</beans:property>
</beans:bean>

This is working fine but now I also need that a particular date field can be left blank. How can I configure the formatter (or this very field) to accept null value?

Thanks!

[Marten Deinum]

The formatter doesn't allow null/empty values and cannot be configured for it. The older CustomDateEditor has support for that, so you might want to switch (if that is possible).

If it is for a single field (assuming you use it in a web environment) implement a @InitBinder method which registers a editor/formatter for this specific field.