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Chapter 30. Exception Handling

30.1. Exception Mappers
30.2. RESTEasy Built-in Internally-Thrown Exceptions
30.3. Overriding RESTEasy Builtin Exceptions

ExceptionMappers are custom, application provided, components that can catch thrown application exceptions and write specific HTTP responses. They are classes annotated with @Provider and that implement this interface

         package javax.ws.rs.ext;

         import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;

         /**
         * Contract for a provider that maps Java exceptions to
         * {@link javax.ws.rs.core.Response}. An implementation of this interface must
         * be annotated with {@link Provider}.
         *
         * @see Provider
         * @see javax.ws.rs.core.Response
         */
         public interface ExceptionMapper<E>
         {
            /**
            * Map an exception to a {@link javax.ws.rs.core.Response}.
            *
            * @param exception the exception to map to a response
            * @return a response mapped from the supplied exception
            */
            Response toResponse(E exception);
         }
      

When an application exception is thrown it will be caught by the JAX-RS runtime. JAX-RS will then scan registered ExceptionMappers to see which one support marshalling the exception type thrown. Here is an example of ExceptionMapper


         @Provider
         public class EJBExceptionMapper implements ExceptionMapper<javax.ejb.EJBException>
         {
            public Response toResponse(EJBException exception) {
               return Response.status(500).build();
            }
         }
      

You register ExceptionMappers the same way you do MessageBodyReader/Writers. By scanning for @Provider annotated classes, or programmatically through the ResteasyProviderFactory class.

RESTEasy has a set of built-in exceptions that are thrown by it when it encounters errors during dispatching or marshalling. They all revolve around specific HTTP error codes. You can find them in RESTEasy's javadoc under the package org.jboss.resteasy.spi. Here's a list of them:

Table 30.1. 

ExceptionHTTP CodeDescription
ReaderException400All exceptions thrown from MessageBodyReaders are wrapped within this exception. If there is no ExceptionMapper for the wrapped exception or if the exception isn't a WebApplicationException, then resteasy will return a 400 code by default.
WriterException500All exceptions thrown from MessageBodyWriters are wrapped within this exception. If there is no ExceptionMapper for the wrapped exception or if the exception isn't a WebApplicationException, then resteasy will return a 400 code by default.
o.j.r.plugins.providers.jaxb.JAXBUnmarshalException400The JAXB providers throw this exception on reads. They may be wrapping JAXBExceptions. This class extends ReaderException
o.j.r.plugins.providers.jaxb.JAXBMarshalException500The JAXB providers throw this exception on writes. They may be wrapping JAXBExceptions. This class extends WriterException
ApplicationExceptionN/AThis exception wraps all exceptions thrown from application code. It functions much in the same way as InvocationTargetException. If there is an ExceptionMapper for wrapped exception, then that is used to handle the request.
FailureN/AInternal RESTEasy. Not logged
LoggableFailureN/AInternal RESTEasy error. Logged
DefaultOptionsMethodExceptionN/AIf the user invokes HTTP OPTIONS and no JAX-RS method for it, RESTEasy provides a default behavior by throwing this exception
UnrecognizedPropertyExceptionHandler400A Jackson provider throws this exception when JSON data is determine to be invalid.

You may override RESTEasy built-in exceptions by writing an ExceptionMapper for the exception. For that matter, you can write an ExceptionMapper for any thrown exception including WebApplicationException