Thanks both. I saw JSF in Action yesterday, but wasn't ready to drop a $50 bet. However, judging from my Hibernate in Action, it would probably be a safe bet.
Think I'll pick that up.
Not to knock the O'reilly book, but I think it again led me astray. From that book I gathered the converter would also validate...
Chapter 7: p. 120
The input component for the Date field is also declared as required and it is linked to an <h:message> action through a unique component ID. Additionally, a nested <f:convertDateTime> action configures the component with a DateTime converter. As described in the previous section, the converter ensures that the value the user enters is a syntactically correct date string. Otherwise, it adds an error message to the list, which the <h:message> action displays.
Emphasis added by yours truly.
Cheers.