Dealing with dates

[fredatwork]

I guess this question has been asked many times. Sorry for raising the
issue once more .
 
but, I would like to ask you about some guidelines how to deal with
dates using Struts.
 
How should be input fields be validated if there are "Date" types ? 
 
Should the ActionForm include a String our a Date type for date input
fields ?
 
Do you know about some documentation I could help for this purpose ?
 
Fred