java - Saving and retrieving date in Firebase

Question

I have a model with the following structure

public class OfferModel {
    private String mImageUrl;
    private String mOfferCode;
    private String mOfferTitle;
    private String mOfferDescription;
    private boolean mIsRunning;
    private String mCreatorUid;
    private Date mStartDate;
}

Everything else works fine on saving. It saves in Firebase Realtime database as

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

But when I try to retrieve it, the date gives the following error -

java.lang.ClassCastException: java.util.HashMap cannot be cast to java.util.Date
at com.localvine.models.OfferModel.<init>(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)

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?

Answer 1

Waitting for answers