you have to pass the atritubte containing the expression in a way that is identical to all other actionhandlers. So something like | <task name="PrivateTask"> | <assignment class="com.sample.CusstomExpressionAssignmentHandler" > | <expression>group(admin)</expression> | </assignment> | </task> | and make sure the expressin is a field in the CustomExpressionAssignmentHandler View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4198963#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...