This is actually a more general requirement (which we may have discussing in passing). Any user-defined class instance that JSF creates should be classified as a components in Java EE. But, to accommodate that without tying JSF directly to the platform (a separation we have always maintained), there should be a pluggable class instance resolver which could be satisfied with a CDI implementation, a Spring bean implementation, etc. That way, it would be possible to support CDI injection into objects such as phase listeners, system event listeners, validators, converters, and so on with the proper resolver. Basically, any time JSF accesses something w/o the use of the EL, it should go through this instance resolver.

In a way, this complements the EL resolver, which is already a nice mechanism for hooking into different component models.

-Dan