49.4. Mapping Exceptions to Responses
Overview
There are instances where throwing a
WebApplicationException exception is impractical or impossible. For example, you may not want to catch all possible exceptions and then create a WebApplicationException for them. You may also want to use custom exceptions that make working with your application code easier.
To handle these cases the JAX-RS API allows you to implement a custom exception provider that generates a
Response object to send to a client. Custom exception providers are created by implementing the ExceptionMapper<E> interface. When registered with the Apache CXF runtime, the custom provider will be used whenever an exception of type E is thrown.
How exception mappers are selected
Exception mappers are used in two cases:
- When a
WebApplicationException, or one of its subclasses, with an empty entity body is thrown, the runtime will check to see if there is an exception mapper that handlesWebApplicationExceptionexceptions. If there is the exception mapper is used to create the response sent to the consumer. - When any exception other than a
WebApplicationExceptionexception, or one of its subclasses, is thrown, the runtime will check for an appropriate exception mapper. An exception mapper is selected if it handles the specific exception thrown. If there is not an exception mapper for the specific exception that was thrown, the exception mapper for the nearest superclass of the exception is selected.
If an exception mapper is not found for an exception, the exception is wrapped in an
ServletException exception and passed onto the container runtime. The container runtime will then determine how to handle the exception.
Implementing an exception mapper
Exception mappers are created by implementing the
javax.ws.rs.ext.ExceptionMapper<E> interface. As shown in Example 49.5, “Exception mapper interface”, the interface has a single method, toResponse(), that takes the original exception as a parameter and returns a Response object.
Example 49.5. Exception mapper interface
public interface ExceptionMapper<E extends java.lang.Throwable>
{
public Response toResponse(E exception);
}
The
Response object created by the exception mapper is processed by the runtime just like any other Response object. The resulting response to the consumer will contain the status, headers, and entity body encapsulated in the Response object.
Exception mapper implementations are considered providers by the runtime. Therefor they must be decorated with the
@Provder annotation.
If an exception occurs while the exception mapper is building the
Response object, the runtime will a response with a status of 500 Server Error to the consumer.
Example 49.6, “Mapping an exception to a response” shows an exception mapper that intercepts Spring
AccessDeniedException exceptions and generates a response with a 403 Forbidden status and an empty entity body.
Example 49.6. Mapping an exception to a response
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.ExceptionMapper;
import org.springframework.security.AccessDeniedException;
@Provider
public class SecurityExceptionMapper implements ExceptionMapper<AccessDeniedException>
{
public Response toResponse(AccessDeniedException exception)
{
return Response.status(Response.Status.FORBIDDEN).build();
}
}
The runtime will catch any
AccessDeniedException exceptions and create a Response object with no entity body and a status of 403. The runtime will then process the Response object as it would for a normal response. The result is that the consumer will receive an HTTP response with a status of 403.
Registering an exception mapper
Before a JAX-RS application can use an exception mapper, the exception mapper must be registered with the runtime. Exception mappers are registered with the runtime using the
jaxrs:providers element in the application's configuration file.
The
jaxrs:providers element is a child of the jaxrs:server element and contains a list of bean elements. Each bean element defines one exception mapper.
Example 49.7, “Registering exception mappers with the runtime” shows a JAX-RS server configured to use a an exception mapper.
Example 49.7. Registering exception mappers with the runtime
<beans ...>
<jaxrs:server id="customerService" address="/">
...
<jaxrs:providers>
<bean id="securityException" class="com.bar.providers.SecurityExceptionMapper"/>
</jaxrs:providers>
</jaxrs:server>
</beans>