title: How to render LocalDateRenderer for Grid in Vaadin 8
body: <p>I understand that <a href="https://github.com/vaadin/framework/issues/8377" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Vaadin 8.1.0 will include a new LocalDateRenderer</a> to work with Java 8's new date <code>LocalDate</code> but in the meantime I'm trying to setup my own custom LocalDateRenderer. I've got it mostly working in that it's all hooked up but based on the documentation I need to setup an <code>AbstractRendererConnector</code> but there's no such class...</p>
  
  <p>The following code is all in my main UI class (for testing purposes):</p>
  
  <pre><code>private void setupGrid(Grid&lt;Dog&gt; grid)
  {
      grid.addColumn(dog -&gt; dog.getBirthday(), new LocalDateRenderer()).setCaption("Birthday");
  }
  
  class LocalDateRenderer extends AbstractRenderer&lt;Object, LocalDate&gt;
  {
      public LocalDateRenderer() 
      {
          super(LocalDate.class, "");
      }
  
      @Override
      public JsonValue encode(LocalDate localDate) 
      {
          return encode(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MMM dd, YYYY").format(localDate), String.class);
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have confirmed that the <code>LocalDateRenderer</code> is called by adding logging statements, however on the grid no values are displayed. If I use the same code but instead of <code>LocalDate</code> I do it for a <code>Long</code> but instead of extends <code>AbstractRenderer</code> I extend <code>NumberRenderer</code> with my own code then it works.</p>
  
  <p>This lead me to the <a href="https://vaadin.com/docs/-/part/framework/clientsidewidgets/clientsidewidgets-grid.html#clientsidewidgets.grid.renderers" rel="nofollow noreferrer">documentation where I need to setup the <code>Renderer</code> with a <code>AbstractRendererConnector</code></a> but whenever I try to do this I get the compiler error saying that <code>AbstractRendererConnector</code> cannot be resolved to a type. And then of course I have a number of compiler errors (in the code below). My code for this (still in the main UI class) is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Connect(LocalDateRenderer.class)
  class LocalDateRendererConnector extends AbstractRendererConnector&lt;LocalDate&gt; 
  {
      @Override
      public LocalDateRenderer getRenderer() 
      {
          return (LocalDateRenderer) super.getRenderer();
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any assistance with how to get it linked up so that it displays my actual dates would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.</p>
  
  <p>Also in the documentation it's not clear which class is which when they refer to <code>TextRenderer</code> since they use the same name to to be different things...</p>