@Controller
@RequestMapping("/test")
public class MyController {

    @InitBinder
    public void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) {
        binder.registerCustomEditor(Date.class,
                  new CustomDateEditor(new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd"),true));
    }


    @RequestMapping(value = "/getdate", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public @ResponseBody Date getDate(@RequestParam("dt") Date dt, Model model) {
        // dt is properly constructed here..
        return new Date();
    }
}

1327682374011

//CustomDateSerializer class
public class CustomDateSerializer extends JsonSerializer {
    @Override
    public void serialize(Date value, JsonGenerator gen, SerializerProvider arg2) throws
        IOException, JsonProcessingException {

        SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
        String formattedDate = formatter.format(value);

        gen.writeString(formattedDate);

    }
}


//date getter method
@JsonSerialize(using = CustomDateSerializer.class)
public Date getDate() {
    return date;
}

<bean id="jacksonObjectMapper" class="org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper"/>
<bean id="jacksonSerializationConfig" class="org.codehaus.jackson.map.SerializationConfig" factory-bean="jacksonObjectMapper" factory-method="getSerializationConfig" />
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean">
    <property name="targetObject" ref="jacksonSerializationConfig" />
    <property name="targetMethod" value="disable" />
    <property name="arguments">
        <list>
            <value type="org.codehaus.jackson.map.SerializationConfig.Feature">WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS</value>
        </list>
    </property>
</bean>

<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean">
    <property name="targetObject" ref="jacksonSerializationConfig" />
    <property name="targetMethod" value="setDateFormat" />
    <property name="arguments">
        <list>
          <bean class="java.text.SimpleDateFormat">
            <constructor-arg value="yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ"/>
          </bean>
        </list>
    </property>
</bean>

<!-- you can't call it objectMapper for some reason -->
<bean name="jacksonObjectMapper" class="org.springframework.http.converter.json.Jackson2ObjectMapperFactoryBean">
    <property name="featuresToDisable">
        <array>
            <util:constant static-field="com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS"/>
        </array>
    </property>
</bean>

<!-- setup spring MVC -->
<mvc:annotation-driven>
    <mvc:message-converters register-defaults="true">
        <bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.json.MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter">
            <property name="objectMapper" ref="jacksonObjectMapper"/>
        </bean>
    </mvc:message-converters>
</mvc:annotation-driven>