I'm working on some code where I am trying to do the following:

1. User clicks a link to an action method on a SFSB
2. method is annotated with @Begin, using a custom conversation id
2a. the custom conversation id comes from the following
2a-1. a @Factory method in a SLSB creates a new persistent entity; the id of this entity will be appended to a String to create a custom conversation id
2a-2. the @Factory class would like to use the existing persistent entity if possible (avoid creating new persistent or querying for existing persistent entity) - thus, I have an @In for the entity.
2a-3. here is the class with the @Factory method:

@Stateless
@Name("draftAccessRequestFinder")
public class DraftAccessRequestFinderBean implements DraftAccessRequestFinder {

 @Logger
 private Log log;

 @PersistenceContext(unitName = "accessControlDatabase")
 private EntityManager em;

 @In
 private Principal userPrincipal;

 @In("#{conversation.id}")
 private String conversationId;

 @In(required = false) @Out(scope= ScopeType.CONVERSATION)
 private DraftAccessRequestMaster draftAccessRequestMaster;

 @Factory("draftAccessRequestMaster")
 public DraftAccessRequestMaster createMaster() {
 log.info("DraftAccessRequestFinderBean.createMaster() : conversationId -> "+conversationId);
 log.info("DraftAccessRequestFinderBean.createMaster() : draftAccessRequestMaster -> "+draftAccessRequestMaster);
 // create or load draftAccessRequest....
 if (conversationId != null && conversationId.indexOf(':')>0 && draftAccessRequestMaster == null) {
 long id = Long.valueOf(conversationId.substring(conversationId.indexOf(':')+1));
 draftAccessRequestMaster = em.find(
 DraftAccessRequestMaster.class, id
 );
 log.info("loaded draftAccessRequestMaster -> "+draftAccessRequestMaster);
 }

 if (draftAccessRequestMaster == null) {
 if (userPrincipal == null) {
 throw new RuntimeException("userPrincipal is null.");
 }
 if (!(userPrincipal instanceof UserPrincipal)) {
 throw new RuntimeException("userPrincipal is not an instance of com.evergreen.jaas.UserPrincipal.");
 }
 draftAccessRequestMaster = new DraftAccessRequestMaster();
 draftAccessRequestMaster.setUserId(
 ((UserPrincipal) userPrincipal).getUserid()
 );
 draftAccessRequestMaster.setUserName(
 ((UserPrincipal) userPrincipal).getPersonName()
 );
 em.persist(draftAccessRequestMaster);
 em.flush(); // we need to obtain a PK for this entity now...
 }
 return draftAccessRequestMaster;
 }
}

3. here is the SFSB that wants the custom conversation id as well as a reference to the persistent entity:

@Stateful
// Seam - defaults to Conversational context...
@Name("accessRequestManager2")
public class AccessRequestManager2Bean implements AccessRequestManager2 {

 @Logger
 private Log log;

 @PersistenceContext(unitName = "accessControlDatabase")
 private EntityManager em;

 @In
 private UserPrincipal userPrincipal;

 // for development purposes only - todo remove this
 @In
 private Conversation conversation;

 @In(create=true) @Out(scope= ScopeType.CONVERSATION)
 private DraftAccessRequestMaster draftAccessRequestMaster;

 @Out
 private List<String> errors = new ArrayList<String>();


 /**
 * Start a new add-access request. This method also generates the conversationId to
 * use in the conversation that beans of this class are associated with.
 *
 * This is complicated - in 1 swoop, we need to
 * 1 - create the DraftAccessRequestMaster for the conversation component
 * 2 -
 */
 @Begin(id = "DraftAccessRequestID:#{draftAccessRequestMaster.id}", join = true)
 public void startAddRequest() {
 log.info("startAddRequest()");
 log.info(conversation);
 log.info("conversation.id = " + conversation.getId());
 log.info("conversation.parentId = " + conversation.getParentId());

 if (draftAccessRequestMaster == null) {
 log.info("draftAccessRequestMaster is null...not expected.");
 }
 ....
 }
}

4. here is a link that calls the SFSB method:

 <s:link action="#{accessRequestManager2.startAddRequest}" value="Add 2"
 title="Add entitlements to an application for a user.">
 </s:link>

5. and here is a log of what occurs

 First click of link...

10:53:32,805 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.DraftAccessRequestFinderBean - DraftAccessRequestFinderBean.createMaster() : conversationId -> 3
10:53:32,805 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.DraftAccessRequestFinderBean - DraftAccessRequestFinderBean.createMaster() : draftAccessRequestMaster -> null
10:53:32,805 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.entity.DraftAccessRequestMaster - new DraftAccessRequestMaster()
10:53:32,821 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.AccessRequestManager2Bean - startAddRequest()
10:53:32,821 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.AccessRequestManager2Bean - org.jboss.seam.core.Conversation@54d3dd
10:53:32,821 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.AccessRequestManager2Bean - conversation.id = DraftAccessRequestID:50
10:53:32,821 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.AccessRequestManager2Bean - conversation.parentId = null

 Second click of link (expecting to find draftAccessRequestMaster in memory for conversation but it's not found...)

10:53:36,915 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.DraftAccessRequestFinderBean - DraftAccessRequestFinderBean.createMaster() : conversationId -> DraftAccessRequestID:50
10:53:36,915 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.DraftAccessRequestFinderBean - DraftAccessRequestFinderBean.createMaster() : draftAccessRequestMaster -> null
10:53:36,930 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.entity.DraftAccessRequestMaster - new DraftAccessRequestMaster()
10:53:36,930 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.DraftAccessRequestFinderBean - loaded draftAccessRequestMaster -> DraftAccessRequestMaster{...}
10:53:36,930 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.AccessRequestManager2Bean - startAddRequest()
10:53:36,930 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.AccessRequestManager2Bean - org.jboss.seam.core.Conversation@adf2c7
10:53:36,946 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.AccessRequestManager2Bean - conversation.id = DraftAccessRequestID:50
10:53:36,946 INFO com.evergreen.accesscontrol.impl.AccessRequestManager2Bean - conversation.parentId = null

So note that I @Out(ject) the entity to Conversation scope, however, when the link is clicked the second time the SLSB and the SFSB don't have an instance of draftAccessRequestMaster injected. So why can't I find my conversational-scoped entity? It looks like the conversation is correctly @Begin(ning) or joining based on whether or not the conversation exists.

Thanks,
Brad Smith