if (date == null) {
            return StringUtil.EMPTY;
        }
        final SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(Constants.ISO_DATETIME_FORMAT);
        sdf.setTimeZone(Constants.TIMEZONE_UTC);
        return sdf.format(date);
    }

    /**
     * Formats a LocalDateTime object to ISO datetime string format.
     *
     * @param date the LocalDateTime to format

            return new Date(((Number) obj).longValue());
        }
        if (obj instanceof String) {
            final SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'");
            sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
            try {
                return sdf.parse(obj.toString());
            } catch (final ParseException e) {
                if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {