JSF/Spring integration - managed-property problem

[Robert Campbell]

I have what seems to be a simple problem. I have a JSF managed-bean:

    <managed-bean>
        <managed-bean-name>searchForm</managed-bean-name>
        <managed-bean-class>com.mycompany.SearchForm </managed-bean-class>
        <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
        <managed-property>
            <property-name>searchManager</property-name>
            <value>#{searchManager}</value>
        </managed-property>       
    </managed-bean>

And a Spring bean:

    <bean id="searchManager" parent="txProxyTemplate">
        <property name="target">
            <bean class="com.mycompany.SearchManagerImpl">          
                <property name="awardDao" ref="awardDao"/>
                <property name="sponsorDao" ref="awardSponsorDao"/>
            </bean>
        </property>
    </bean>

I'm using AppFuse, which comes with JSF and Spring pre-wired together (ie. <variable-resolver>org.springframework.web.jsf.DelegatingVariableResolver </variable-resolver> is already there and working, etc).

Now AppFuse has lots of JSF managed beans that take Spring bean references as a managed-property. The whole application works fine, and all these other JSF managed beans get their Spring bean references fine and everything is dandy. Sadly, this doesn't work for me. The searchForm JSF bean is instantiated correctly (I use logging) but the managed-property is NEVER set. The setSearchManager function is never called ( log.info as the first line of the setter).

I also know that the Spring searchManager bean is created fine (again, using logging), and I have other Spring beans which make use of it perfectly.

So my question is: how do I troubleshoot this?

Thank you!