If you provide a no-args constructor, the exception dealing with instantiation will be gone. This is the only way Seam can construct your seam components properly. Yes, as you suggested, use the @Create to initialize other important properties pertaining to the class. The annotated method is called once Seam has fully initialize the component. As for @DataModel, this will outject the annotated property to the scope of the owning component. In your case, the conversation. And for @DataModelSelection, this will inject the selected model object, if it's successfully look up in the contexts. You have to ensure that the conversation is long-running, just long enough though, so that @DataModelSelection object can be successfully be retrieved through the @DataModel property. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3996541#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...