Many tags make use of the pattern attribute. For example,

    <dateField pattern="date"
    

To set values globally for each type and language, you can define dbforms.pattern.timestamp dbforms.pattern.date etc. For Example:

ApplicationResources.properties

dbforms.pattern.date=yyyy-MM-dd
dbforms.pattern.timestamp=yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm

If you use the abbriviations SHORT, MEDIUM, FULL you can define them too:

dbforms.pattern.timestamp.short
dbforms.pattern.date.full.

As defaults, Dbforms is using the following if you do not specify the patterns for each field individually.

   public static final int DATE_STYLE_DEFAULT = java.text.DateFormat.MEDIUM;
   public static final int TIME_STYLE_DEFAULT = java.text.DateFormat.SHORT;