should we always use a javax.faces.convert.Converter for the getAsString()?
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I can understand that the **getAsObject()** method of **javax.faces.convert.Converter** serves a purpose in the specific phase of the JSF Life-Cycle that is used (**Apply Request Values**) given the sequence of phases that follow it. But it is not clear to me whether we should always use the **Converter** pattern for the opposite direction (object-to-string). The **getAsString()** method is only invoked in the **Render Response** phase. So, the way I see it, a read-only property on the *backing bean* or even the *entity bean* could be used instead.

E.g. say I have a view where I display the *age* of a person. Now clearly, *age* is not kept in the database, only *dateOfBirth* is, so I have simply defined an **age** read-only property on my *entity bean* and the code in the getter **getAge()** method contains the conversion logic that simply accesses the *entity beans*'s "real" *dateOfBirth* property and does some Calendar-ish stuff. The **xhtml** view then binds directly to the age property of the entity bean (through a backing-bean collection).

Am I doing something wrong in polluting the entity bean with conversion code?


