Changed the way I look for ConversionServices to add to the default set of Converters by looking in the ApplicationContext rather than playing monkey games with @Configuration and @Autowired.

spring-data-rest-webmvc/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/webmvc/RepositoryRestController.java

@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
 
 import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;
 import org.springframework.beans.BeansException;
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanFactoryUtils;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.InitializingBean;
 import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
 import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware;
@@ -214,6 +215,10 @@ public class RepositoryRestController
 
   @SuppressWarnings({"unchecked"})
   @Override public void afterPropertiesSet() throws Exception {
+    for (ConversionService convsvc : BeanFactoryUtils.beansOfTypeIncludingAncestors(applicationContext,
+                                                                                    ConversionService.class).values()) {
+      conversionService.addConversionServices(convsvc);
+    }
   }
 
   @SuppressWarnings({"unchecked"})

spring-data-rest-webmvc/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/rest/webmvc/RepositoryRestMvcConfiguration.java

@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.ImportResource;
-import org.springframework.core.convert.ConversionService;
 import org.springframework.data.rest.repository.RepositoryExporter;
 import org.springframework.data.rest.repository.context.ValidatingRepositoryEventListener;
 import org.springframework.data.rest.repository.jpa.JpaRepositoryExporter;
@@ -46,9 +45,6 @@ public class RepositoryRestMvcConfiguration {
   @Autowired(required = false)
   JpaRepositoryExporter customJpaRepositoryExporter;
 
-  @Autowired(required = false)
-  ConversionService customConversionService;
-
   @Autowired(required = false)
   List<HttpMessageConverter<?>> httpMessageConverters = new ArrayList<HttpMessageConverter<?>>();
 
@@ -118,9 +114,6 @@ public class RepositoryRestMvcConfiguration {
           .repositoryExporters(Arrays.<RepositoryExporter>asList(jpaRepositoryExporter()))
           .httpMessageConverters(httpMessageConverters())
           .jsonMediaType("application/json");
-      if (null != customConversionService) {
-        repositoryRestController.conversionService(customConversionService);
-      }
     }
     return repositoryRestController;
   }

spring-data-rest-webmvc/src/test/groovy/org/springframework/data/rest/webmvc/spec/RepositoryRestControllerSpec.groovy

@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ class RepositoryRestControllerSpec extends Specification {
 
     then:
     model.status == HttpStatus.OK
-    reposLinks?.size() == 3
+    reposLinks?.size() == 4
 
     when: "adding an entity"
     model.clear()

spring-data-rest-webmvc/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/rest/test/webmvc/UuidTest.java

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+package org.springframework.data.rest.test.webmvc;
+
+import java.util.UUID;
+import javax.persistence.Entity;
+import javax.persistence.Id;
+
+/**
+ * @author Jon Brisbin <jbrisbin@vmware.com>
+ */
+@Entity
+public class UuidTest {
+
+  @Id UUID id = UUID.randomUUID();
+  String name;
+
+  public UuidTest() {
+  }
+
+  public UUID getId() {
+    return id;
+  }
+
+  public String getName() {
+    return name;
+  }
+
+  public void setName(String name) {
+    this.name = name;
+  }
+
+}

spring-data-rest-webmvc/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/rest/test/webmvc/UuidTestRepository.java

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+package org.springframework.data.rest.test.webmvc;
+
+import java.util.UUID;
+
+import org.springframework.data.repository.CrudRepository;
+
+/**
+ * @author Jon Brisbin <jbrisbin@vmware.com>
+ */
+public interface UuidTestRepository extends CrudRepository<UuidTest, UUID> {
+}

spring-data-rest-webmvc/src/test/resources/META-INF/persistence.xml

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
     <class>org.springframework.data.rest.test.webmvc.Person</class>
     <class>org.springframework.data.rest.test.webmvc.Profile</class>
     <class>org.springframework.data.rest.test.webmvc.Address</class>
+    <class>org.springframework.data.rest.test.webmvc.UuidTest</class>
     <properties>
       <property name="hibernate.dialect" value="org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect"/>
       <property name="hibernate.connection.url" value="jdbc:hsqldb:mem:spring"/>

spring-data-rest-webmvc/src/test/resources/META-INF/spring-data-rest/repositories-export.xml

@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 
     Uncomment this block to add the included UUID <-> String converters, which are not included by default.
   -->
-  <!--
   <bean class="org.springframework.context.support.ConversionServiceFactoryBean">
     <property name="converters">
       <set>
@@ -26,7 +25,6 @@
       </set>
     </property>
   </bean>
-  -->
 
   <!--
     This validator will be picked up automatically. The default configuration is to look at the bean name