[java] JSON date to Java date?

Note that SimpleDateFormat format pattern Z is for RFC 822 time zone and pattern X is for ISO 8601 (this standard supports single letter time zone names like Z for Zulu).

So new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSX") produces a format that can parse both "2013-03-11T01:38:18.309Z" and "2013-03-11T01:38:18.309+0000" and will give you the same result.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, you can't get this format to generate the Z for Zulu version, which is annoying.

I actually have more trouble on the JavaScript side to deal with both formats.