Alfresco personService.createPerson error when using spring component-scan

Question

Some weeks ago, I developed an AMP based on Alfresco 3.4.14. In that module, I created some customized services. One of the services was used to manage users, with a method to create new users:

public NodeRef createUser(<my_parameters>) {
    ..........................
    ..........................
    HashMap<QName, Serializable> properties = new HashMap<QName, Serializable>();

    properties.put(ContentModel.PROP_USERNAME, username);
    properties.put(ContentModel.PROP_PASSWORD, password);
    ..........................
    ..........................
    NodeRef person = personService.createPerson(properties);
    return person;
}

All services were defined in alfresco context files:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans  http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

    <bean id="customUserService" class="com.mycustom.service.impl.CustomUsersServiceImpl">
        <property name="personService" ref="PersonService"/>
        <property name="nodeService" ref="NodeService"/>
    </bean>
    <bean id="customProjectsService" class="com.mycustom.service.impl.CustomProjectsServiceImpl">
        <property name="searchService" ref="SearchService"/>
        <property name="nodeService" ref="NodeService"/>
    </bean>
</beans>

Everything was working properly. I was able to create users, execute my other customized services...until here PERFECT!!!!!!!! The application was working properly.

---

Few days ago, instead of define all the beans in the context, we decided to start to use spring annotations:

package com.mycustom.service.impl;

@Service("customUsersService")
public class CustomUsersServiceImpl implements CustomUsersService {

    @Override
    public NodeRef createUser(<my_parameters>) {
    }
}

And in the context file, to use the spring component-scan:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
       xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

    <context:annotation-config/>
    <context:component-scan base-package="com.mycustom.service" />
</beans>

All the services were working properly, the application looked to work properly too. We were happy because we could decouple our application, using annotations.

BUTTTTTTTTTTTT, when I tried to create a user, through the explorer or trough the application I got the same error: Failed to create Person due to error: xxxxxxx beforeCreateNode: use PersonService to create person

Answer 1

Debugging PersonServiceImpl class, I detected the error was in the line beforeCreateNodeValidationBehaviour.enable();

public NodeRef createPerson(Map<QName, Serializable> properties, Set<String> zones) {
    .....................
    .....................
    NodeRef personRef = null;
        try
        {
            beforeCreateNodeValidationBehaviour.disable();

            personRef = nodeService.createNode(
                    getPeopleContainer(),
                    ContentModel.ASSOC_CHILDREN,
                    getChildNameLower(userName), // Lowercase:
                    ContentModel.TYPE_PERSON, properties).getChildRef();
        }
        finally
        {
            //ERROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
            beforeCreateNodeValidationBehaviour.enable();
        }
    .....................
    .....................
}

After some investigations, when we reverted the code, and remove the spring component-scan, the application was working properly again.

We opened a ticket to Alfresco support, and they told us, this issue is fixed in alfresco 4.1.4

Then people who are using a prior version of Alfresco like us, be careful with this and remove the component-scan and replace it with manual beans wiring.