Question

Which JSF 1.2 component is responsible for instantiating managed bean specified in faces-config.xml?

I’d like to replace this component with my custom-made version which will perform some additional tasks after bean instance is successfully created.

Answer 1

No one component is responsible for that. It is just EL which is responsible for that. If the expression #{beanname} returns null, it will create one which is associated with the managed bean name.

In your specific case, the normal way to solve this problem is just making use of the constructor of the bean or a public method of the bean annotated with @PostConstruct.

public class Bean {

    public Bean() {
        // Put code here which is to be executed during construction, but before      
        // setting of the managed properties (<managed-property> declarations).
    }

    @PostConstruct
    public void init() {
        // Put code here which is to be executed AFTER construction 
        // and the setting of managed properties.
    }

}

If you really want to take the EL resolving in your own hands, then best what you can do is to implement a custom ELResolver. You can find here an article about that.