Spring Authentication failure - spring

Question

I would like to ask from some insight as I'm not sure what is wrong here. I need to add authentication via database stored details so I'm trying to do that. The problem being that every userdetails I use to access the main pages returns the login failed page.
The DAO layer
#Transactional
#Repository ("staffDAO")
public class StaffDAO extends AbstractDAO<Staff>{
public StaffDAO() {
super(Staff.class);
}
#Autowired
#Resource(name="sessionFactory")
private SessionFactory sessionFactory;
private Transaction transaction;
public void setSessionFactory(SessionFactory sessionFactory) {
this.sessionFactory = sessionFactory;}
#SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public List<Authority> getAuthority() {
Session session = sessionFactory.getCurrentSession();
Query query = session.createQuery("from Authority ");
return query.list();}
public void saveAuthority(Authority authority) {
try {
Session session = sessionFactory.getCurrentSession();
transaction = session.beginTransaction();
session.save(authority);
transaction.commit();
} catch (Exception e) {
transaction.rollback();}}
#Transactional("hibernatetransactionManager")
public Staff getUserByUserName(String userName){
Query queryResult;
queryResult =getCurrentSession().createQuery("from Staff where username=:userName");
queryResult.setParameter("userName", new String(userName));
return (Staff) queryResult.list().get(0)}}
Service layers
public interface StaffService{
List<Authority> getAuthorities();
public void saveAuthority(Authority authority);
public Staff getUserByUserName(String userName);}
#Service("staffService")
#Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED, readOnly = true)
public class StaffServiceImpl implements StaffService {
#Autowired
StaffDAO staffDAO;
private AbstractDAO<Staff> sessionFactory;
public StaffDAO getStaffDAO() {
return staffDAO;}
public void setStaffDAO(StaffDAO staffDAO) {
this.staffDAO = staffDAO;}
#Override
public List<Authority> getAuthorities() {
return staffDAO.getAuthority();}
#Override
public void saveAuthority(Authority authority) {
staffDAO.saveAuthority(authority);}
#Override
public Staff getUserByUserName(String userName) {
return staffDAO.getUserByUserName(userName);}}
CustomUserDetailsService
#Repository("customUserDetailsService")
#Service
#Component
public class CustomUserDetailsService implements UserDetailsService{
#Resource
private StaffService staffService;
public CustomUserDetailsService(){
}
public CustomUserDetailsService(StaffService staffService) {
this.staffService = staffService; }
#Override
public UserDetails loadUserByUsername(String userName)
throws UsernameNotFoundException {
Staff staff;
try {
staff = staffService.getUserByUserName(userName);
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new UsernameNotFoundException(
"getUserByUserName returned null.");}
return (UserDetails) staff;}}
Models
#Entity
#Table(name = "staff")
#Component
public class Staff implements Serializable, UserDetails{
private static final long serialVersionUID = 8825646974241476909L;
#Id
#Column(name = "staff_id")
private String staffId;
#Column(name = "name")
private String name;
#Column(name = "username")
private String username;
#Column(name = "password")
private String password;
***** getters and setters
public void setAuthorities(Set<Authority> authorities) {
this.authorities = authorities;
}
#Override
public Set<Authority> getAuthorities() {
return authorities;
}}
#Entity
#Table(name="authorities")
#Component
public class Authority implements Serializable, GrantedAuthority{
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
public Authority(){
// must have one default constructor
}
#Id
#Column(name = "authority")
private String authority;
#Column(name = "role_name",nullable=false,unique=true)
private String roleName;
public String getRoleName() {
return roleName;
}
public void setRoleName(String roleName) {
this.roleName = roleName;
}
#Override
public String getAuthority() {
return authority;
}
public void setAuthority(String authority) {
this.authority = authority;
}
public Authority(String authority,String roleName){
this.authority=authority;
this.roleName=roleName;
}}
XML config
<authentication-manager>
<authentication-provider user-service-ref="customUserDetailsService"/>
</authentication-manager>
<beans:bean id="customUserDetailsService"
class="com.project.professional.service.CustomUserDetailsService">
</beans:bean>
<http auto-config="true" use-expressions="true" >
<intercept-url pattern="/j_spring_security_check" access="permitAll"/>
<intercept-url pattern='/home' access="hasRole('ROLE_USER')" />
<form-login login-page='/login' always-use-default-target="true" default-target-
url="/home" authentication-failure-url="/auth/loginFailed"/>
<logout invalidate-session="true" logout-success-url='/login' />
</http>
Controller
#RequestMapping(value="/login", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String getLoginPage(ModelMap model) {
return "login";}
#RequestMapping(value = "/home", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String getHomePage(Locale locale, Model model) {
return "/home";}
Jsp
<c:url value="/j_spring_security_check" var="loginUrl"/>
<form action="${loginUrl}" method="post" name="loginForm">
<p>
<label for="j_username">Username</label>
<input id="j_username" name="j_username" type="text" />
</p>
<p>
<label for="j_password">Password</label>
<input id="j_password" name="j_password" type="password" />
</p>
<input type="submit"
value="Login"/>
</form>
So what I'm asking is if there is anything that I'm missing, as to why it does not authenticate and return the home page. I would appreciate any insight into this.