JSF @ManagedBean; will be loaded on web application startup and initializes the Spring application context

ApplicationBean.java

import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
import javax.ejb.EJB;
import javax.faces.bean.ApplicationScoped;
import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.servlet.ServletContext;

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader;
import org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext;

import de.ckl.ejb.SpringContextBean;

/**
 * Application wide settings. The instance of this bean will be loaded on
 * application startup.
 * 
 * @author ckl
 */
@ApplicationScoped
@ManagedBean(name = "app", eager = true)
public class ApplicationBean {
  Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ApplicationBean.class);

	@EJB
	SpringContextBean springContextBean;

	/**
	 * On application startup, this method initializes the default
	 * {@link XmlWebApplicationContext} and injects the context into the
	 * {@link SpringContextBean}.
	 */
	@PostConstruct
	public void onApplicationStartup() {
		log.info("Initializing default Spring XmlWebApplicationContext");

		ServletContext sc = (ServletContext) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance()
				.getExternalContext().getContext();
		XmlWebApplicationContext ctx = new XmlWebApplicationContext();
		ctx.setServletContext(sc);
		ContextLoader contextLoader = new ContextLoader(ctx);
		contextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(sc);

		log.info("Spring XmlWebApplicationContext initialized");
		springContextBean.setApplicationContext(ctx);
	}
}