[SalesForce] Java sql.TimeStamp to Salesforce

The datetime in salesforce is always stored in GMT (UTC). The time is corrected to the users time zone when displaying it on the UI. The time is only corrected in the UI, so you need to make the adjustment yourself for formula fields.

Datetime input field cast to another timezone

http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/officetoolkit/Content/sforce_api_calls_soql_select_dateformats.htm

You need to adjust for your own time zone in your formula to account for this. In my formula fields, since I am in EST, I have to adjust all the datetimes by 5 hours to make sure I have the correct values. I just do this in a long case statement like below. this formula finds the hour of the day that a case was created, notice I have to adjust each time by 5 hours to make it work

TEXT(CASE(VALUE(LEFT(RIGHT(text(CreatedDate),FIND(" ", TEXT( CreatedDate ))-2),2)), 
00,19, 
01,20, 
02,21, 
03,22, 
04,23, 
05,00, 
06,01, 
07,02, 
08,03, 
09,04, 
10,05, 
11,06, 
12,07, 
13,08, 
14,09, 
15,10, 
16,11, 
17,12, 
18,13, 
19,14, 
20,15, 
21,16, 
22,17, 
23,18, 
00))

Here's what a DateTime looks like when blatted out on a page as a string:

(format one)

Fri Nov 30 21:55:38 GMT 2012

You can't just hydrate that string back into a DateTime. You must construct or deserialize it.

Here's what a serialized DateTime looks like:

(format two)

"2014-01-24T16:56:27.044Z"

It's not the same as the above string output. You need something more like this:

public DateTime dateFromUrl() {
    String serializedDate = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('startDate');
    return (DateTime)Json.deserialize(serializedDate, DateTime.class);
}

And as a good web citizen, if you're serving up the parameter in a link it should be URL encoded:

https://c.na1.visual.force.com/apex/MyPage?startDate=2014-01-24T16%3A56%3A27.044Z

And you might note that the DateTime.valueOf method expects yet a different value:

(format three)

yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss

Knowing these, we can ensure that we are creating (and expecting) matching date formats.