Attempt to convert String to type "java.util.Date", but there is no PropertyEditor for that type

Root Cause

• When you call evaluate, it is going to use the JSTL Coercion class to try to coerce the provided object (a String) in to the specified class (Date). This coerce attempt tries to find and use a PropertyEditor to provide the converted result:

  public static Object coerceToObject(Object pValue, Class pClass, Logger pLogger)
    throws ELException
  {
    if (pValue == null) {
      return null;
    }
    if (pClass.isAssignableFrom(pValue.getClass())) {
      return pValue;
    }
    if ((pValue instanceof String)) {
      String str = (String)pValue;
      PropertyEditor pe = PropertyEditorManager.findEditor(pClass);
      if (pe == null) {
        if ("".equals(str)) {
          return null;
        }

        if (pLogger.isLoggingError()) {
          pLogger.logError(Constants.NO_PROPERTY_EDITOR, str, pClass.getName());
        }

        return null;
      }
      try
      {
        pe.setAsText(str);
        return pe.getValue();
      }

• The exception indicates a PropertyEditor for "java.util.Date" is not found, so the evaluate call and coercion attempt cannot succeed on EAP 6. The oracle java docs clarify how a PropertyEditorManager looks up a PropertyEditor:

The PropertyEditorManager uses three techniques for locating an editor for a given type. First,
it provides a registerEditor method to allow an editor to be specifically registered for a given
type. Second it tries to locate a suitable class by adding "Editor" to the full qualified classname
of the given type (e.g. "foo.bah.FozEditor"). Finally it takes the simple classname (without the
package name) adds "Editor" to it and looks in a search-path of packages for a matching class.

• So EAP 4.2 provided a PropertyEditor for java.util.Date found in the above manner while EAP 6 does not. EAP 4.2 provides the org.jboss.util.propertyeditor.DateEditor class in the jboss-common.jar, which would have served as the java.util.Date PropertyEditor for that evaluate call to work previously. In EAP 4.2, org.jboss.system.ServiceConfigurator calls the following when it is loaded at start up:

   static
   {
      PropertyEditors.init();
   }

• This org.jboss.util.propertyeditor.PropertyEditors.init() call sets the PropertyEditorManager path to include org.jboss.util.propertyeditor and org.jboss.mx.util.propertyeditor. So EAP 4.2 was specifically setting the PropertyEditorManager path so that it could find the DateEditor in the jboss-common.jar by scanning the org.jboss.util.propertyeditor package. It doesn't look like the PropertyEditors was even loaded and init'd for JSTL specifically, so it looks like it was just a happy coincidence that it did provide the DateEditor for that particular JSTL coercion call to work.
• EAP 6 provides the DateEditor class in the common-core module, but PropertyEditors.init() is no longer called in EAP 6 and neither is java.beans.PropertyEditorManager.setEditorSearchPath() called anywhere else. So without being given a path, the PropertyEditorManager scans no packages, doesn't find the DateEditor, and JSTL has nothing to try to coerce the String to a Date as it happened to on EAP 4.2.