Mapping DateTime properties in SharePoint User Profile using BCS

Just a quick one this time.

When importing a field to a SharePoint UserProfile DateTime type in the User Profile. You normaly have a BCS model with a property of System.DateTime and map that to the UserProfile. However this won't work, you will get errors like this:
"Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.PropertyInvalidFormatException: Invalid Date Format: Input must match smalldatetime data type, or be a string that parses to match the Guid data type ---> System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.   
at System.DateTimeParse.ParseExact(String s, String format, DateTimeFormatInfo dtfi, DateTimeStyles style)   
at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileGlobal.ValidatedDate(Object value, PropertyDataType propDataType, SiteContext si)     -
-- End of inner exception stack trace ---   
at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileGlobal.ValidatedDate(Object value, PropertyDataType propDataType, SiteContext si)   
at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileGlobal.ValidatedSingleValue(Object value, ProfileSubtypeProperty prop, PropertyDataType

propDataType, UserFormat userFormat, UserProfileApplicationProxy userProfileApplicationProxy, Guid partitionID, SiteContext si)   
at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfile.BulkPropertiesUpdate(Int64 importExportId, Hashtable properties, String strAccountName)."

To fix you need to do the following:

- The property in your BCS model should still be 'System.DateTime'. Otherwise you cannot map the BCS to the UserProfile Date typed property.
- However make sure your BCS code outputs a string in the following format: yyyyMMddHHmmss.0Z (like: .ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss.0Z", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
This will make sure the output can be converted to a DateTime.

If you want more details use reflector on:
- class Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileGlobal
- method private static DateTime ValidatedDate(object value, PropertyDataType propDataType, SiteContext si)