PropertiesRestClientHttpServiceGroupConfigurer has highest precedence, preventing other configurers from being ordered ahead of it

[rstoyanchev]

PropertiesRestClientHttpServiceGroupConfigurer is ordered at Integer.MIN_VALUE (highest precedence), and it makes sense for properties to be applied first, but arguably it should be possible to order ahead of it, if necessary.

Recently we introduced an option in Spring Framework to supply the initial clientBuilder instance instead of having a default builder. However, right now it's impossible for that to go first, and instead the application of properties triggers default clientBuilder initialization.

We do have possible alternatives, e.g. to defer the application of configurers until all have been provided, but wanted to see first if the order of PropertiesRestClientHttpServiceGroupConfigurer could be updated to something like Integer.MIN_VALUE + 10?

[VKS1572]

Thanks for reporting the issue! I looked into the behavior of PropertiesRestClientHttpServiceGroupConfigurer and why it currently cannot be overridden by user-defined configurers.

✔️ Root Cause

PropertiesRestClientHttpServiceGroupConfigurer is annotated with @Order(Integer.MIN_VALUE) which gives it the highest precedence. This forces it to run before any custom RestClientHttpServiceGroupConfigurer regardless of the ordering that the user specifies.

As a result:

• Even when the user wants to provide an initial clientBuilder (a capability recently added in Spring Framework), this configurer runs first.
• Its property-based initialization triggers default clientBuilder creation prematurely.
• No custom configurer can be ordered ahead of it due to the Integer.MIN_VALUE lock.

✔️ Proposed Solution

Update its precedence from:

@Order(Integer.MIN_VALUE)