Enable customers to control the 2 digit year used in SimpleDateFormat

There are many date fields in Maximo, each of which go through a process to convert the string value into a date value using Java's SimpleDateFormat. This introduces sometimes undesirable behavior by the platform because the year field is a 2-digit year. If you enter a value such as 10/10/49 in a date field, it will be for the calendar year 2049. If you use 10/10/50 in a date field, it will be for the calendar year 1950.

SimpleDateFormat has a method (set2DigitYearStart) to control this that the Maximo product is currently not utilizing. We would like a system property to be introduced for customers to control what this cutoff year should be. Then in the MXFormat and other related classes, we can look at the system property and set this on the SimpleDateFormat before parsing the dates. This would allow customers to set what the cutoff should be, leaving the current behavior in place for those that do not set this property.

Customers in certain industries begin planning maintenance activities 30+ years out. The current behavior can lead to undesirable results where work is scheduled for 70 years prior. While some fields in Maximo prevent historical dates, most do not. This can lead to missed work or other issues. With a few exceptions (Install Date for example on an asset), most date fields in Maximo are never going to go that far back historically. Thus, it would be beneficial to control the default behavior.