Using time in Dovetail

It is possible that you will have to deal with the date and time in an integration flow. Sometimes a specific date or time must be requested, but it may also be possible that an existing date or time must be converted to another type. Below are a number of examples of the use of date and time using simple expressions and Groovy script. Of course date and time transformations are possible by using xslt as well.

Simple expression examples

Here we show multiple examples that generate a timestamp in multiple formats.

Expression	Result
${date-with-timezone:now:Europe/Amsterdam:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss}	2019-08-16 15:04:37
${date-with-timezone:now:Europe/Dublin:yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss}	2019-08-16'T'14:04:37
${date-with-timezone:now:Europe/Lison:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss}	2019-08-16 14:04:37
${date-with-timezone:now:Europe/Sofia:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss}	2019-08-16 16:04:37
${date-with-timezone:now:Europe/Amsterdam:HH:mm:ss:SSS}	2019-08-16 16:04:37:387
${date-with-timezone:now:Europe/Amsterdam:dd-MM-yyyy}	16-08-2019
${date-with-timezone:now:Europe/Amsterdam:ddMMyyyy}	16082019
${date-with-timezone:now:Europe/Amsterdam:yyyyMMdd}	20190816

Groovy script examples

Example Groovy scripts to transform a header value into a specific date time format. These can be used in the script component

Example 1

Header:

• Name: value1
• Value: 20150702

Script:

String oldDate = request.getHeader('value1')
Date date = Date.parse( 'yyyyMMdd', oldDate )
String currentDate = date.format( "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS" )
request.setHeader('value1', currentDate)

Result: 2015-07-02T00:00:00.000

Example 2

Header:

• Name: value2
• Value: 05-04-2019

Script:

String oldDate = request.getHeader('value2')
Date date = Date.parse( 'dd-MM-yyyy', oldDate )
String currentDate = date.format( "yyyyMMdd" )
request.setHeader('value2', currentDate)

Result: 20190405

Example 3

Header:

• Name: value3
• Value: 1541759458

Script:

Long unixDate = Long.valueOf(request.getHeader('value3'))
Date date = new Date(unixDate)
String currentDate = date.format( "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ" )
request.setHeader('value3', currentDate)

Result: 1970-01-18T20:15:59.458+0000

Example 4

Header:

• Name: value4
• Value: a201805041235040000000

Script:

oldDate = request.getHeader('value4')
timestamp = Date.parse(“yyyyMMddHHmmss”, oldDate).format("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ")
request.setHeader('value4', timestamp)

Result: 2019-08-10T11:41:40+0000

Example 5

Header:

• Name: value5
• Value: 1988-06-22 20:15:59.458

Script:

oldDate = request.getHeader('value5')
timestamp = Date.parse("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss", oldDate).format("E MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy")
request.setHeader('value5', timestamp)

Result: Wed Jun 22 20:15:59 UTC 1988

Example 6

Calcuate a UNIX timestamp in milliseconds and set it on a header.

Script:

def currentDateAsUnixMs = new Date().getTime().toString()
def currentDateAsUnix = currentDateAsUnixMs.substring(0,10)
request.setHeader('timestamp', currentDateAsUnix)

Example 7

Calculate an interval in seconds between two dates.

Header:

• Name: previous
• Value: 2021-05-25 13:51:18

Script:

def currentTime = new Date()
String currentTimeFormat= currentTime.format("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")

def previousTime = request.getHeader('previous')
def oldTime = Date.parse("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss", previousTime)
def difference = currentTime.getTime() - oldTime.getTime()

interval = Math.round(difference/1000)
request.setHeader('intervalsecs', interval)

Date Format Pattern Syntax

You can design your own format patterns for dates and times from the list of symbols in the following table:

Symbol	Meaning	Presentation	Example
G	era designator	Text	AD
y	year	Number	2009
M	month in year	Text & Number	July & 07
d	day in month	Number	10
h	hour in am/pm (1-12)	Number	12
H	hour in day (0-23)	Number	0
m	minute in hour	Number	30
s	second in minute	Number	55
S	millisecond	Number	978
E	day in week	Text	Tuesday
D	day in year	Number	189
F	day of week in month	Number	2 (2nd Wed in July)
w	week in year	Number	27
W	week in month	Number	2
a	am/pm marker	Text	PM
k	hour in day (1-24)	Number	24
K	hour in am/pm (0-11)	Number	0
z	time zone	Text	Pacific Standard Time
'	escape for text	Delimiter	(none)
'	single quote	Literal	'

Characters that are not letters are treated as quoted text. That is, they will appear in the formatted text even if they are not enclosed within single quotes. The number of symbol letters you specify also determines the format. For example, if the "zz" pattern results in "PDT," then the "zzzz" pattern generates "Pacific Daylight Time." The following table summarizes these rules:

Presentation	Number of Symbols	Result
Text	1 - 3	Abbreviated form, if one exists
Text	>= 4	Full form
Number	minimum number of digits is required	Shorter numbers are padded with zeros (for a year, if the count of 'y' is 2, then the year is truncated to 2 digits)
Text & Number	1 - 2	Number form
Text & Number	3	Text form