The beans are defined thus:

   <bean id="defaultSourceMetaData" class="com.example.metadata.SourceMetaData">
        <constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="${source.name}"/>
   </bean>
   <bean id="reconSourceMetaData" class="com.example.metadata.SourceMetaData" factory-method="extractData">
        <constructor-arg index="0" value="${source.metadata.query}"/>
   </bean>
   <bean id="sourceProvider" class="com.example.file.FileSourceProvider">
        <property name="sourceMetaData" value="#{ reconSourceMetaData != null ? reconSourceMetaData : defaultSourceMetaData }"/>
   </bean>

We know, that the reconSourceMetaData is null — because the query initializing it returns an empty set. But the defaultSourceMetaData is not being created — and the program fails with

Cannot convert value of type 'org.springframework.beans.factory.support.NullBean' to required type 'com.example.metadata.SourceMetaData' for property 'sourceMetaData': no matching editors or conversion strategy found

If I replace the SpEL-expression with a direct reference to the default bean:

<property name="sourceMetaData" ref="defaultSourceMetaData"/>

the defaultSourceMetaData-bean is initialized, and the property is initialized correctly. But I do need the initialization to be conditional — what’s wrong with the syntax I’m using?