Spring setter method order

Question

Is there any way, by which I can set a order for setter methods on spring beans.

Ex:

<bean id="tester" class="commons.PropertyTester">   
    <property name="value1" value="${xyz}"></property>
    <property name="value2" value="${abc}"></property>
</bean>

In above scenario setter for value1 is called before setter for value2.

When I reverse order of properties as follows

<bean id="tester" class="commons.PropertyTester">
    <property name="value2" value="${port}"></property> 
    <property name="value1" value="${server}"></property>
</bean>

Value2 setter method is invoked before value1.

Is there any gracefull way by which we can force to always invoke setter for value1 before value2.

One way can be to throw exception in setter of value2..asking user for required order. Is there any other way?

Answer 1

I guess you are doing some logic in the setter and while setting the value2 you assume value1 to be available. Instead of depending on such an order, you should use @PostContruct annotation.

@PostConstruct
public void init() {
    //here you are guaranteed to have all the dependencies injected
}

If you prefer, you might implement InitializingBean instead.

Back to your original question: I don't think there is any guarantee about the order in which setters are invoked in Spring - or at least I would assume there is no such and do not depend on it.