Spring Resttemplate exception handling

Question

Below is the code snippet; basically, I am trying to propagate the exception when the error code is anything other than 200.

ResponseEntity<Object> response = restTemplate.exchange(url.toString().replace("{version}", version),
                    HttpMethod.POST, entity, Object.class);
            if(response.getStatusCode().value()!= 200){
                logger.debug("Encountered Error while Calling API");
                throw new ApplicationException();
            }

However in the case of a 500 response from the server I am getting the exception

org.springframework.web.client.HttpServerErrorException: 500 Internal Server Error
    at org.springframework.web.client.DefaultResponseErrorHandler.handleError(DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java:94) ~[spring-web-4.2.3.RELEASE.jar:4.2.3.RELEASE]

Do I really need to wrap the rest template exchange method in try? What would then be the purpose of codes?

Answer 1

Here is my POST method with HTTPS which returns a response body for any type of bad responses.

public String postHTTPSRequest(String url,String requestJson)
{
    //SSL Context
    CloseableHttpClient httpClient = HttpClients.custom().setSSLHostnameVerifier(new NoopHostnameVerifier()).build();
    HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory requestFactory = new HttpComponentsClientHttpRequestFactory();
    requestFactory.setHttpClient(httpClient);
    //Initiate REST Template
    RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate(requestFactory);
    HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
    headers.setContentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);
    //Send the Request and get the response.
    HttpEntity<String> entity = new HttpEntity<String>(requestJson,headers);
    ResponseEntity<String> response;
    String stringResponse = "";
    try {
        response = restTemplate.postForEntity(url, entity, String.class);
        stringResponse = response.getBody();
    }
    catch (HttpClientErrorException e)
    {
        stringResponse = e.getResponseBodyAsString();
    }
    return stringResponse;
}

Answer 2

Spring cleverly treats http error codes as exceptions, and assumes that your exception handling code has the context to handle the error. To get exchange to function as you would expect it, do this:

    try {
        return restTemplate.exchange(url, httpMethod, httpEntity, String.class);
    } catch(HttpStatusCodeException e) {
        return ResponseEntity.status(e.getRawStatusCode()).headers(e.getResponseHeaders())
                .body(e.getResponseBodyAsString());
    }

This will return all the expected results from the response.

Answer 3

You should catch a HttpStatusCodeException exception:

try {
    restTemplate.exchange(...);
} catch (HttpStatusCodeException exception) {
    int statusCode = exception.getStatusCode().value();
    ...
}

Answer 4

You want to create a class that implements ResponseErrorHandler and then use an instance of it to set the error handling of your rest template:

public class MyErrorHandler implements ResponseErrorHandler {
  @Override
  public void handleError(ClientHttpResponse response) throws IOException {
    // your error handling here
  }

  @Override
  public boolean hasError(ClientHttpResponse response) throws IOException {
     ...
  }
}

[...]

public static void main(String args[]) {
  RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
  restTemplate.setErrorHandler(new MyErrorHandler());
}

Also, Spring has the class DefaultResponseErrorHandler, which you can extend instead of implementing the interface, in case you only want to override the handleError method.

public class MyErrorHandler extends DefaultResponseErrorHandler {
  @Override
  public void handleError(ClientHttpResponse response) throws IOException {
    // your error handling here
  }
}

Take a look at its source code to have an idea of how Spring handles HTTP errors.

Answer 5

The code of exchange is below:

public <T> ResponseEntity<T> exchange(String url, HttpMethod method,
            HttpEntity<?> requestEntity, Class<T> responseType, Object... uriVariables) throws RestClientException

Exception RestClientException has HttpClientErrorException and HttpStatusCodeException exception.

So in RestTemplete there may occure HttpClientErrorException and HttpStatusCodeException exception. In exception object you can get exact error message using this way: exception.getResponseBodyAsString()

Here is the example code:

public Object callToRestService(HttpMethod httpMethod, String url, Object requestObject, Class<?> responseObject) {

        printLog( "Url : " + url);
        printLog( "callToRestService Request : " + new GsonBuilder().setPrettyPrinting().create().toJson(requestObject));

        try {

            RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
            restTemplate.getMessageConverters().add(new MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter());
            restTemplate.getMessageConverters().add(new StringHttpMessageConverter());


            HttpHeaders requestHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
            requestHeaders.setContentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);

            HttpEntity<Object> entity = new HttpEntity<>(requestObject, requestHeaders);

            long start = System.currentTimeMillis();

            ResponseEntity<?> responseEntity = restTemplate.exchange(url, httpMethod, entity, responseObject);

            printLog( "callToRestService Status : " + responseEntity.getStatusCodeValue());


            printLog( "callToRestService Body : " + new GsonBuilder().setPrettyPrinting().create().toJson(responseEntity.getBody()));

            long elapsedTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
            printLog( "callToRestService Execution time: " + elapsedTime + " Milliseconds)");

            if (responseEntity.getStatusCodeValue() == 200 && responseEntity.getBody() != null) {
                return responseEntity.getBody();
            }

        } catch (HttpClientErrorException exception) {
            printLog( "callToRestService Error :" + exception.getResponseBodyAsString());
            //Handle exception here
        }catch (HttpStatusCodeException exception) {
            printLog( "callToRestService Error :" + exception.getResponseBodyAsString());
            //Handle exception here
        }
        return null;
    }

Here is the code description:

In this method you have to pass request and response class. This method will automatically parse response as requested object.

First of All you have to add message converter.

restTemplate.getMessageConverters().add(new MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter());
            restTemplate.getMessageConverters().add(new StringHttpMessageConverter());

Then you have to add requestHeader. Here is the code:

HttpHeaders requestHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
            requestHeaders.setContentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);

            HttpEntity<Object> entity = new HttpEntity<>(requestObject, requestHeaders);

Finally, you have to call exchange method:

ResponseEntity<?> responseEntity = restTemplate.exchange(url, httpMethod, entity, responseObject);

For prety printing i used Gson library. here is the gradle : compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.4'

You can just call the bellow code to get response:

ResponseObject response=new RestExample().callToRestService(HttpMethod.POST,"URL_HERE",new RequestObject(),ResponseObject.class);

Here is the full working code:

import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;
import org.springframework.http.*;
import org.springframework.http.converter.StringHttpMessageConverter;
import org.springframework.http.converter.json.MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter;
import org.springframework.web.client.HttpClientErrorException;
import org.springframework.web.client.HttpStatusCodeException;
import org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate;


public class RestExample {

    public RestExample() {

    }

    public Object callToRestService(HttpMethod httpMethod, String url, Object requestObject, Class<?> responseObject) {

        printLog( "Url : " + url);
        printLog( "callToRestService Request : " + new GsonBuilder().setPrettyPrinting().create().toJson(requestObject));

        try {

            RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
            restTemplate.getMessageConverters().add(new MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter());
            restTemplate.getMessageConverters().add(new StringHttpMessageConverter());


            HttpHeaders requestHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
            requestHeaders.setContentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);

            HttpEntity<Object> entity = new HttpEntity<>(requestObject, requestHeaders);

            long start = System.currentTimeMillis();

            ResponseEntity<?> responseEntity = restTemplate.exchange(url, httpMethod, entity, responseObject);

            printLog( "callToRestService Status : " + responseEntity.getStatusCodeValue());


            printLog( "callToRestService Body : " + new GsonBuilder().setPrettyPrinting().create().toJson(responseEntity.getBody()));

            long elapsedTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
            printLog( "callToRestService Execution time: " + elapsedTime + " Milliseconds)");

            if (responseEntity.getStatusCodeValue() == 200 && responseEntity.getBody() != null) {
                return responseEntity.getBody();
            }

        } catch (HttpClientErrorException exception) {
            printLog( "callToRestService Error :" + exception.getResponseBodyAsString());
            //Handle exception here
        }catch (HttpStatusCodeException exception) {
            printLog( "callToRestService Error :" + exception.getResponseBodyAsString());
            //Handle exception here
        }
        return null;
    }

    private void printLog(String message){
        System.out.println(message);
    }
}

Thanks :)

Answer 6

Another solution is the one described here at the end of this post by "enlian": http://springinpractice.com/2013/10/07/handling-json-error-object-responses-with-springs-resttemplate

try{
     restTemplate.exchange(...)
} catch(HttpStatusCodeException e){
     String errorpayload = e.getResponseBodyAsString();
     //do whatever you want
} catch(RestClientException e){
     //no response payload, tell the user sth else 
}