I want to use the JPA EntityListener to support spring security ACLs. On @PostPersist events, I create a permission corresponding to the persisted entity.

I need this operation to participate to the current Transaction. For this to happen I need to have a reference to the application TransactionManager in the EntityListener.

The problem is, Spring can't manage the EntityListener as it is created automatically when EntityManagerFactory is instantiated. And in a classic Spring app, the EntityManagerFactory is itself created during the TransactioManager instantiation.

<bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager">
    <property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="entityManagerFactory" />
</bean>

So I have no way to inject the TransactionManager with the constructor, as it is not yet instantiated.

Making the EntityManager a @Component create another instance of the EntityManager. Implementing InitiliazingBean and using afterPropertySet() doesn't work as it's not a Spring managed bean.

Any idea would be helpful as I'm stuck and out of ideas.