If you're like me and you really love to use Google Web Toolkit, you would probably also have noticed that the API docs are not very good. It has taken me many hours just to figure out how to format the date value in the new DatePicker which recently migrated to GWT 1.6 from gwt incubator. So to any who stuble unto this blog here, what I've tried to do is lay out the solutions to all the problems that have plagued me with GWT;

1. How to format the DatePicker to display a date.
The API gives a lot of details about the different patterns to use, but I've found that using the pre-configured patterns is probably the easiest way to go gives a lot of details about the different patterns to use, but I've found that using the pre-configured patterns is probably the easiest way to go. For example:
...

    Date today = new Date();

   // prints Tue Dec 18 12:01:26 GMT-500 2007 in the default locale.
   GWT.log(today.toString(), null);

   // prints 12/18/07 in the default locale
   GWT.log(DateTimeFormat.getShortDateFormat().format(today), null);

   // prints December 18, 2007 in the default locale
   GWT.log(DateTimeFormat.getLongDateFormat().format(today), null);

   // prints 12:01 PM in the default locale
   GWT.log(DateTimeFormat.getShortTimeFormat().format(today), null);

   // prints 12:01:26 PM GMT-05:00 in the default locale
   GWT.log(DateTimeFormat.getLongTimeFormat().format(today), null);

   // prints Dec 18, 2007 12:01:26 PM in the default locale
   GWT.log(DateTimeFormat.getMediumDateTimeFormat().format(today), null);
  
   // A custom date format
   DateTimeFormat fmt = DateTimeFormat.getFormat("EEEE, MMMM dd, yyyy");
   // prints Monday, December 17, 2007 in the default locale
   GWT.log(fmt.format(today), null);

So to format a DateBox to display a date like 06/26/2009
dateBox = new DateBox();
dateBox.setFormat(new DateBox.DefaultFormat(DateTimeFormat.getShortDateFormat()));
...