// Joda has it's own pluggable converters infrastructure
// it will throw IllegalArgumentException if can't convert
// look @ org.joda.time.convert.ConverterManager
return new LocalDate(val);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException ex) {
throw new ConverterException("Don't know how to convert from type '" + val.getClass().getName() + "' to type '" + LocalDate.class.getName() + "'", ex);
}
}