Metacat

    protected static final DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ");

     * parse a date and return it in GMT if it ends with a 'Z'

     * @param date

     * @return

     * @throws ParseException

     */

    protected Date parseDateAndConvertToGMT(String date) throws ParseException

    {

        try

        {   //the format we want

            return dateFormat.parse(date);

        }

        catch(java.text.ParseException pe)

        {   //try another legacy format

            DateFormat dateFormat2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'hh:mm:ss'Z'");

            dateFormat2.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT-0"));

            return dateFormat2.parse(date);

        }    

    }

    /**