Welcome to the JavaRanch, Tom!
java.util.date's "Set day/month/year" methods are deprecated, but one alternative is to use the setTime mutator, which would five you something like this:
However, the time in milliseconds since January 1 1970 isn't very user-friendly. Referencing a Calendar would seem a reasonable alternative, but unfortunately Calendar doesn't work too well in JavaBean mode.
Here's 3 options:
1. Ignore the fact that setMonth/Dayt/Year are deprecated and use those properties anyway. You'll run the risk that a future
Java implementation will fail because someone finally got rid of them, though. I really don't recommend using deprecated methods, no matter how much the boss screams "Git 'R Dun!".
2. Wrap the java.util.Date with a class of your own making that DOES support either a date-string or month/day/year properties (or both). You can use a Calendar to make the translation and then inject the calendar time into the superclass value. This could, however, lead to possible cases where you actually need a Date and not something which merely has a Date superclass, so tread carefully.
3. Last, but not least, take solution 2 and create another Managed Bean to set the data, then take that bean's time property and inject it into the time property of a true java.util.Date bean.