ManagedProperty not injected in @FacesConverter

Question

I'm trying to inject a ManagedBean in my FacesConverted the following way:

@ManagedBean
@RequestScoped
@FacesConverter(forClass = Group.class)
public class GroupConverter implements Converter {

@ManagedProperty("#{groupService}")
private GroupService groupService;

@Override
public Group getAsObject(FacesContext context, UIComponent arg1,
        String groupName) {
    return groupService.findGroupByName(groupName);
}

@Override
public String getAsString(FacesContext arg0, UIComponent arg1, Object group) {
    return ((Group) group).getName();
}

public GroupService getGroupService() {
    return groupService;
}

public void setGroupService(GroupService groupService) {
    this.groupService = groupService;
}

}

The problem is that groupService isn't being injected and I get a NullPointerEx. Shouldn't it be autowired automatically since it's also a ManagedBean? It all works when I change "getAsObject" to "return new Group();" obviously.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

It is likely that you are not resolving the managed bean name.

@ManagedBean(name = "myConverter")
@RequestScoped
@FacesConverter(value = "myConverter")
public class MyConverter implements Converter {

For example, consider these two components:

        <h:inputText converter="myConverter" value="#{foo.prop}" />
        <h:inputText converter="#{myConverter}" value="#{bar.prop}" />

When the converter is set on the first component, it will be created by Application.createConverter. A converter is not a managed bean. The same rules apply if you match a converter by type.

In the second component, a value expression is used to return a class that implements Converter. This uses the usual managed bean mechanisms. In this case, the @FacesConverter annotation is irrelevant.