fix(tagLabel): lenient appliedAt date deserialization

[Khairajani]

Summary

TagLabel.appliedAt is typed java.util.Date and the global Jackson ObjectMapper is configured with SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS'Z'") — which strictly requires 6-digit fractional seconds on parse. Python clients using Pydantic emit datetimes via datetime.isoformat(), which omits the fractional part entirely when microsecond == 0 (~1/1000 odds per timestamp). The result is a payload like "2026-04-24T10:27:06Z" that the server cannot deserialize, surfacing as:

RuntimeException: Failed to convert JsonValue to target class
  caused by: Cannot deserialize value of type `java.util.Date` from String "2026-04-24T10:27:06Z":
             Unparseable date  (through reference chain: Table["columns"]→Column["tags"]→TagLabel["appliedAt"])

This was causing intermittent automator propagation failures in CI — every PATCH carrying a round-tripped appliedAt with microsecond=0 was being rejected. Same class of bug as the tag_usage.appliedAt precision fix in the 1.11.8 / 1.12.0 MySQL migrations, just on the wire side.

Fix

Register a Jackson mixin on TagLabel.appliedAt that wraps Jackson's normal Date path with one tiny pre-processing step: if the incoming value is the bare-second ISO form (yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ), pad the fractional with .000000 so the global SimpleDateFormat accepts it. Otherwise the value is handed to DeserializationContext#parseDate — the same path Jackson uses for every other Date field — so every wire form that worked before keeps working.

Cases the deserializer handles:

• Bare-second ISO "2026-04-24T10:27:06Z" → padded → SDF parses as ms=0 (this PR's goal)
• Server's own SDF emit "2026-04-24T10:27:06.000918Z" → SDF parses as ms=918 (round-trip preservation)
• 3-digit ms ISO "2026-04-24T10:27:06.918Z" → SDF lenient → ms=918 (JS Date.toISOString())
• JSON number 1777976050918 → new Date(getLongValue()) (matches Jackson default)
• Numeric string "1777976050918" (10–19 digits) → Date(Long.parseLong) (JSON-Patch hop sometimes stringifies numbers)
• null / empty / malformed → null or JsonMappingException via handleWeirdStringValue

Mixin is added to the global OBJECT_MAPPER before any .copy(), so all five derived mappers inherit it. No generated code is touched. Serialization is unchanged (still always emits 6-digit fractional from the global format).

Test plan

• JsonUtilsTest#testTagLabelAppliedAtAcceptsBareSecondPrecision — original PR goal
• JsonUtilsTest#testTagLabelAppliedAtRoundTripPreservesMillis — server's own .000918Z round-trip preserves ms
• JsonUtilsTest#testTagLabelAppliedAtAcceptsEpochMillis — JSON number + numeric string forms
• JsonUtilsTest#testTagLabelAppliedAtMalformedRaisesMappingException — error path surfaces as JsonMappingException
• mvn -pl openmetadata-spec install -DskipTests passes
• mvn -pl openmetadata-service test -Dtest=JsonUtilsTest — 14/14 green
• mvn spotless:apply clean
• CI integration tests / playwright shards

[github-actions]

Hi there 👋 Thanks for your contribution!

The OpenMetadata team will review the PR shortly! Once it has been labeled as safe to test, the CI workflows
will start executing and we'll be able to make sure everything is working as expected.

Let us know if you need any help!

[github-actions]

🟡 Playwright Results — all passed (18 flaky)

✅ 3980 passed · ❌ 0 failed · 🟡 18 flaky · ⏭️ 86 skipped

Shard	Passed	Failed	Flaky	Skipped
🟡 Shard 1	298	0	1	4
🟡 Shard 2	748	0	6	8
🟡 Shard 3	743	0	3	7
🟡 Shard 4	774	0	1	18
🟡 Shard 5	686	0	1	41
🟡 Shard 6	731	0	6	8

🟡 18 flaky test(s) (passed on retry)

• Pages/AuditLogs.spec.ts › should apply both User and EntityType filters simultaneously (shard 1, 1 retry)
• Features/ActivityAPI.spec.ts › Activity event is created when description is updated (shard 2, 1 retry)
• Features/ActivityAPI.spec.ts › Activity event is created when tags are added (shard 2, 1 retry)
• Features/ColumnBulkOperations.spec.ts › should show disabled edit button when no columns are selected (shard 2, 1 retry)
• Features/Glossary/GlossaryHierarchy.spec.ts › should cancel move operation (shard 2, 1 retry)
• Features/Glossary/GlossaryWorkflow.spec.ts › should display correct status badge color and icon (shard 2, 1 retry)
• Features/Glossary/GlossaryWorkflow.spec.ts › should start term as Draft when glossary has reviewers (shard 2, 1 retry)
• Features/RTL.spec.ts › Verify Following widget functionality (shard 3, 1 retry)
• Features/Table.spec.ts › Tags term should be consistent for search (shard 3, 1 retry)
• Flow/PersonaFlow.spec.ts › Set default persona for team should work properly (shard 3, 1 retry)
• Pages/CustomProperties.spec.ts › Should display custom properties for apiCollection in right panel (shard 4, 1 retry)
• Pages/EntityDataSteward.spec.ts › User as Owner Add, Update and Remove (shard 5, 1 retry)
• Pages/Glossary.spec.ts › Column dropdown drag-and-drop functionality for Glossary Terms table (shard 6, 1 retry)
• Pages/Lineage/DataAssetLineage.spec.ts › verify create lineage for entity - Table (shard 6, 1 retry)
• Pages/Lineage/LineageFilters.spec.ts › Verify lineage schema filter selection (shard 6, 1 retry)
• Pages/Lineage/LineageRightPanel.spec.ts › Verify custom properties tab IS visible for supported type: searchIndex (shard 6, 1 retry)
• Pages/ODCSImportExport.spec.ts › Multi-object ODCS contract - object selector shows all schema objects (shard 6, 1 retry)
• Pages/UserDetails.spec.ts › Admin user can edit teams from the user profile (shard 6, 1 retry)

📦 Download artifacts

How to debug locally

# Download playwright-test-results-<shard> artifact and unzip
npx playwright show-trace path/to/trace.zip    # view trace

[gitar-bot]

Code Review ✅ Approved 2 resolved / 2 findings

Simplifies TagLabel.appliedAt deserialization to support both ISO formats and epoch-millisecond inputs, resolving potential failures when serializing datetimes without fractional seconds. No issues found.

✅ 2 resolved

✅ Edge Case: LenientIsoDateDeserializer doesn't wrap DateTimeParseException

📄 openmetadata-spec/src/main/java/org/openmetadata/schema/utils/JsonUtils.java:912-918
Instant.parse(value) throws an unchecked DateTimeParseException for malformed input. While Jackson's infrastructure will catch it and surface an error, wrapping it in a ctxt.handleUnexpectedToken(...) or JsonMappingException would produce a cleaner, more consistent error message with the JSON path context (e.g., through reference chain: ...TagLabel["appliedAt"]) rather than an unwrapped runtime exception.

In practice this is low-impact because Jackson does catch RuntimeException during deserialization and re-wraps it, but explicit handling is the idiomatic Jackson pattern and gives better diagnostics.

✅ Edge Case: looksLikeEpochMillis has no length guard against ambiguous inputs

📄 openmetadata-spec/src/main/java/org/openmetadata/schema/utils/JsonUtils.java:952-963
The looksLikeEpochMillis helper returns true for any all-digit string regardless of length. While ISO-8601 strings contain non-digit characters (so won't match), a hypothetical compact date like "20260424" (YYYYMMDD) would be misinterpreted as epoch millis (~234 days from epoch). For TagLabel.appliedAt this is unlikely in practice since inputs are either ISO-8601 or genuine epoch-ms, but a simple length guard (e.g. >= 10 digits, since epoch-ms for any date after ~2001 is 13 digits) would make intent clearer and prevent any future ambiguity.

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[sonarqubecloud]

Quality Gate passed for 'open-metadata-ingestion'

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud