We seem to be talking at cross purposes here. I do understand that I need to set these properties myself - hence the references to setField in my initial post. However I do not understand why I get the exception when trying to set the FacesMessage variable. I looked at the source code but emerged none the wiser. I was therefore hoping someone on this forum could shed some light but at the moment we seem to be going round in circles. Is what I am doing basically wrong-headed or is there something else that might explain this exception? View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4108418#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...