Webflow view-state model bean properties are not autowired - spring-webflow-2

Question

I have a Spring 3.2.11 and Webflow 2.4.0 app using JSF2 for view rendering.
One of my pages uses a view-state model bean for validation but when the validatePasswordChange method is called, the bean properties have not been autowired so I get a NPE. I don't understand why they're null!?
Thank you for any suggestions.
Here's my bean validation method. Why is the passwordService property null?
public void validatePasswordChange(ValidationContext context) {
MessageContext messages = context.getMessageContext();
if (!confirmPassword.equals(newPassword)) {
messages.addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error()
.source("confirmPassword")
.defaultText(
this.getMessage("kyn.password.change.validation.noMatch"))
.build());
};
List<String> validationMessages = passwordService
.validatePasswordPolicyCompliance(getUsername(),
newPassword);
if (validationMessages != null) {
for (String message : validationMessages) {
messages.addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error()
.source("confirmPassword")
.defaultText(message).build());
}
}
}
Here's a snippet from my flow.xml. I'm inserting passwordUpdateBean into the flowScope in the on-start and expecting the model attribute to use it:
<on-start>
<evaluate expression="passwordUpdateBean" result="flowScope.passwordUpdateBean"></evaluate>
</on-start>
<view-state id="passwordChange" model="passwordUpdateBean">
<transition on="proceed" to="update"/>
<transition on="cancel" to="redirectCancel" validate="false"/>
</view-state>
And here's my bean config xml:
<bean id="passwordUpdateBean"
class="com.xyz.PasswordUpdateBean"
scope="prototype"
parent="abstractWebBean">
<property name="passwordService" ref="passwordManagementService"/>
<property name="appUserDetailsService" ref="appUserDetailsService"/>
<property name="autoLoginAfterEnrollment" value="true"/>
<property name="usernamePasswordAuthenticationProvider" ref="usernamePasswordAuthenticationProvider"/>
</bean>

Answer 1

beans will NOT auto wire inside your flow definitions. You have get have to explicitly retrieve the bean into the flow definition.
Note #Service class annotations are automatically accessible in flow files (i.e <evaluate expression="myService.getPasswordUpdateBean()" result="flowScope.passwordUpdateBean"/>)
<on-start>
<evaluate expression="....getPasswordUpdateBean()" result="flowScope.passwordUpdateBean"></evaluate>
<!-- where '....' = either #service class or some other obj that holds a reference to the bean you seek -->
</on-start>