It doesn't make sense to clutter the action API with accessor methods for these values in a class meant to abstract actions from the framework, so I just have a generic accessor for the mdbean. Then the classes that need it can just pull the values directly out of the MDBean.

If there was a way to synch the internal values with the IDE, I'd be set.

What I couldn't figure out before was how IoC-3 or "dependency injection" worked with subclasses. But you just have the subclass make a call to the superclass constructor (just like in Matt Albrecht's IFTC test package), which is so simple I had to laugh at myself for not using it earlier. I use interfaces so much that I don't know all the subclassing tricks yet. Every now and then something sneaks up on you that you realize you should have known earlier. Like thread local. And state coupling.