Spring Controller sometimes has null #Autowired objects and seems not to be managed by Spring Context - angularjs

Question

I have a Spring controller defined like this with 2 request mappings, one using localDAO and the other using dependencyDAO. LocalDAO classes exist in my project and DependencyDAO classes are imported via maven dependency:
#RestController
#PreAuthorize("hasRole('USER')")
public class MyController
#Autowired
private localDAO LocalDAO; // dao classes exist in my project
#Autowired
private DependencyDAO dependencyDAO; // dao classes imported via maven dependency
...
#RequestMapping("/getUsingLocalDAO")
private String getUsingLocalDAO(
#JsonProperty("param") String param) {
localDAO.get(param) ... // <== this never null
}
#RequestMapping("/getUsingDependencyDAO")
private String getUsingDependencyDAO(
#JsonProperty("param") String param) {
dependencyDAO.get(param) ... // <== this always null
}
...
My dao beans are defined in another class:
#Configuration
public class DaoBeans {
#Bean
public LocalDAO localDAO() throws Exception {
return new LocalDAOImpl();
}
#Bean
public DependencyDAO dependencyDAO () throws Exception {
return new DependencyDAOImpl();
}
...
I am doing an $http.post from Angular like this:
$http.post('getUsingLocalDAO', $.param($scope.parameters), {
headers : {
"content-type" : "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
}
}).success(function(data) {
...
}).error(function(data) {
...
$http.post('getUsingDependencyDAO', $.param($scope.parameters), {
headers : {
"content-type" : "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
}
}).success(function(data) {
...
}).error(function(data) {
...
Both posts are identical except for the method they execute.
When stepping through the debugger I can see all the dao beans being created.
When I call getUsingLocalDAO everything works as expected.
But, when I call getUsingDependencyDAO every #Autowired object is null.
I believe I am getting different instances of MyController. One managed by Spring and one not; or at least not instantiated properly.
I make these calls in succession. It doesn't matter what order they are in.
I tried injecting the servlet context via #Autowired to get the bean manually but it is always null in getUsingDependencyDAO as well.
I tried using application context aware and although I see the context setter being set in the debugger the context is always null in getUsingDependencyDAO.
If I wrap the two calls in a third request mapping like so everything works well (no null objects).
#RequestMapping("/getUsingBothDAO")
private String getUsingBothDAO(
#JsonProperty("param") String param) {
getLocalDAO(param);
getDependencyDAO(param);
...
}
I am using Spring-Boot 4.1.5. My project is 100% annotation driven and has no .xml configurations. The only difference between the two request mappings is that one uses a bean from a dependency and one does not.
I have been searching for an answer to this problem for 3 days and have not found anything close to what I am experiencing.
Can anyone shed some light as to what I am doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Ok, I solved the problem. My example code above is not entirely accurate. The request method that was giving me nulls was defined as a private method while the one that worked was defined as public as its supposed to be. Originally the private method was not a request method and that modifier remained after the change. I changed it to public and everything is working.
It was just coincidence that the private method was from an imported project. It's curious that Spring did not throw an error that the request mapping didn't exist on the private method or something to that effect.
Thanks to anyone who looked at this and was trying to figure it out.