Grails service injection null when injected service has older grails version - grails

Question

I have written a Grails Plugin, written in Grails 2.1.1, which offers a service. Now, I have created a new Grails project with Grails 2.4.4 and wanted to inject the service, but this fails.
package testproject
class HomeController {
def myService
def index() {
println myService
}
}
Always nullis printed. I tested this with a Grails 2.4.4 project and with a Grail2 2.4.3 project. When I create instead my Grails Project with Grails 2.1.1 it works.
Why? Shouldn't be a service reachable for newer versions? Do I always have to upgrade the plugin, which contains the service, to be able to use newer Grails versions?

Answer 1

I had this problem as well, and it didn't hit me until 2.4.4. I have a custom security plugin that depends on the Spring Security Plugin. In my plugin, I'm setting a custom user details service in doWithSpring. This definition looks like this:
userDetailsService(UserService) {
grailsApplication = ref('grailsApplication')
errorService = ref('errorService')
}
I had references to userService in my application and in my plugin. These references stopped being injected in Grails 2.4.4. I was able to fix it by replacing these references with userDetailsService. I don't like this though, because the reference looks like it points to the Spring Security version of this service, and I'm invoking methods that only exist in my UserService class.
Anyways, I'm not sure if it's a bug or bug fix in 2.4.4, but check and make sure that your plugin and/or resources.groovy files aren't redefining your MyService class as something else.