Saving and retrieving date in Firebase : <p>I have a model with the following structure  </p>

<pre><code>public class OfferModel {
    private String mImageUrl;
    private String mOfferCode;
    private String mOfferTitle;
    private String mOfferDescription;
    private boolean mIsRunning;
    private String mCreatorUid;
    private Date mStartDate;
}
</code></pre>

<p>Everything else works fine on saving. It saves in Firebase Realtime database as</p>

<pre><code>startDate
    date: 22
    day: 3
    hours: 23
    minutes: 20
    month: 5
    seconds: 50
    time: 1466617850476
    timezoneOffset: -330
    year: 116
</code></pre>

<p>But when I try to retrieve it, the date gives the following error - </p>

<pre><code>java.lang.ClassCastException: java.util.HashMap cannot be cast to java.util.Date
at com.localvine.models.OfferModel.&lt;init&gt;(OfferModel.java:37)
at com.localvine.managers.OfferManager$1.onDataChange(OfferManager.java:62)
at com.google.android.gms.internal.zzafp.zza(Unknown Source)
at com.google.android.gms.internal.zzagp.zzSu(Unknown Source)
at com.google.android.gms.internal.zzags$1.run(Unknown Source)
at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:615)
</code></pre>

<p>I understand that Firebase doesn't support Java Date object, but since it's saving them in a map, how can I get back the date from that map? Is there any proper way of saving and retrieving dates in Firebase Android?</p>
