Stateful Converter

Question

Hi,
I need to use client state saving method, but I also have some converters that require a persistent state. I can't seem to save my member data in a session variable. Here is an example:
public class MyConverter implements Converter, StateHolder {
  private transient NotSerializableType myHelper;
  private boolean tranzient;
  public MyConverter() {}
  public Object getAsObject(FacesContext context, UIComponent component, String value) {
    return myHelper.getObject(context, component, value);
  public String getAsString(FacesContext context, UIComponent component, Object value) {
    return value.toString();
  public boolean isTransient() {
    return tranzient;
  public void setTransient(boolean tranzient) {
    this.tranzient = tranzient;
  public Object saveState(FacesContext context) {
    ExpressionFactory factory = context.getApplication().getExpressionFactory();
    ELContext elContext = context.getElContext();
    final String state = "#{sessionScope.someVar}";
    ValueExpression ex = factory.createValueExpression(elContext, state, NotSerializableType.class);
    ex.setValue(elContext, getMyHelper());
    return state;
  public void restoreState(FacesContext context, Object state) {
    ExpressionFactory factory = context.getApplication().getExpressionFactory();
    ELContext elContext = context.getElContext();
    ValueExpression ex = factory.createValueExpression(elContext, (String) state, NotSerializableType.class);
    NotSerializableType myHelper = (NotSerializableType) ex.getValue(elContext);
    setMyHelper(myHelper);
  public NotSerializableType getMyHelper() {
    return myHelper;
  public void setMyHelper(NotSerializableType myHelper) {
    this.myHelper = myHelper;
}The JSF is as follows:
<f:converter converterId="myConverter">
  <f:param id="myHelper" value="#{myHelperBean}" />
</f:converter>In restoreState(...), a NullPointerException is thrown when calling ex.getValue(elContext). The debugger says that the state variable is retrieved as the same string that is returned by the saveState(...) method. The ELContext, however, has nothing in its variables map during the restoreState(...) method.
Am I way off base with what I am trying to do? All I want is to store a reference to my non-serializable type in the session so that I can access it across requests. In fact, myHelperBean is a session bean, but I don't want to limit the namespace for this bean.
Thank you,
David

Answer 1

I think it had something to do with Tomahawk (1.1.6). I moved around the extension filters, and somehow everything has been working. Thanks for the reply though.