I have found a bug in the HolidayRequestClient class. In the createHolidayRequest method where adding the startDate and endDate to the rootElement content, it looks like a misplaced end bracket embeds the endDate attribute inside the startDate ie:
Code:
document.getRootElement()
	.addContent(new Element("Holiday", hrNs)
		.addContent(new Element("StartDate", hrNs).setText(fmt.format(startDate))
				.addContent(new Element("EndDate", hrNs).setText(fmt.format(endDate)))))
				.addContent(new Element("Employee", hrNs)
				.addContent(new Element("Number", hrNs).setText(String.valueOf(employeeId)))
				.addContent(new Element("FirstName", hrNs).setText(firstName))
				.addContent(new Element("Number", hrNs).setText(lastName)));
Produces the following XML:

Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<hr:HolidayRequest xmlns:hr="http://mycompany.com/hr/schemas">
  <hr:Holiday>
    <hr:StartDate>
      2008-08-01
      <hr:EndDate>2008-08-31</hr:EndDate>
    </hr:StartDate>
  </hr:Holiday>
  <hr:Employee>
    <hr:Number>1</hr:Number>
    <hr:FirstName>William</hr:FirstName>
    <hr:Number>Nicholson</hr:Number>
  </hr:Employee>
</hr:HolidayRequest>
What should be actually this in the code:
Code:
document.getRootElement()
	.addContent(new Element("Holiday", hrNs)
		.addContent(new Element("StartDate", hrNs).setText(fmt.format(startDate)))//<-- ADD HERE 
				.addContent(new Element("EndDate", hrNs).setText(fmt.format(endDate)))) //REMOVED HERE
				.addContent(new Element("Employee", hrNs)
				.addContent(new Element("Number", hrNs).setText(String.valueOf(employeeId)))
				.addContent(new Element("FirstName", hrNs).setText(firstName))
				.addContent(new Element("Number", hrNs).setText(lastName)));
Produces the correct XML

Code:
<hr:HolidayRequest xmlns:hr="http://mycompany.com/hr/schemas">
  <hr:Holiday>
    <hr:StartDate>2008-08-01</hr:StartDate>
    <hr:EndDate>2008-08-31</hr:EndDate>
  </hr:Holiday>
  <hr:Employee>
    <hr:Number>1</hr:Number>
    <hr:FirstName>William</hr:FirstName>
    <hr:Number>Nicholson</hr:Number>
  </hr:Employee>
</hr:HolidayRequest>
Can we get someone from Springsource to check this out, and make amends in their deployer files for the tutorials.