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Chapter 47. Handling Exceptions

Abstract

When possible, exceptions caught by a resource method should cause a useful error to be returned to the requesting consumer. JAX-RS resource methods can throw a WebApplicationException exception. You can also provide ExceptionMapper<E> implementations to map exceptions to appropriate responses.

47.1. Overview of JAX-RS Exception Classes
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Overview
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In JAX-RS 1.x, the only available exception class is WebApplicationException. Since JAX-WS 2.0, however, a number of additional JAX-RS exception classes have been defined.

JAX-RS runtime level exceptions
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The following exceptions are meant to be thrown by the JAX-RS runtime only (that is, you must not throw these exceptions from your application level code):
ProcessingException
(JAX-RS 2.0 only) The javax.ws.rs.ProcessingException can be thrown during request processing or during response processing in the JAX-RS runtime. For example, this error could be thrown due to errors in the filter chain or interceptor chain processing.
ResponseProcessingException
(JAX-RS 2.0 only) The javax.ws.rs.client.ResponseProcessingException is a subclass of ProcessingException, which can be thrown when errors occur in the JAX-RS runtime on the client side.

JAX-RS application level exceptions
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The following exceptions are intended to be thrown (and caught) in your application level code:
WebApplicationException
The javax.ws.rs.WebApplicationException is a generic application level JAX-RS exception, which can be thrown in application code on the server side. This exception type can encapsulate a HTTP status code, an error message, and (optionally) a response message. For details, see Section 47.2, “Using WebApplicationException exceptions to report errors”.
ClientErrorException
(JAX-RS 2.0 only) The javax.ws.rs.ClientErrorException exception class inherits from WebApplicationException and is used to encapsulate HTTP 4xx status codes.
ServerErrorException
(JAX-RS 2.0 only) The javax.ws.rs.ServerErrorException exception class inherits from WebApplicationException and is used to encapsulate HTTP 5xx status codes.
RedirectionException
(JAX-RS 2.0 only) The javax.ws.rs.RedirectionException exception class inherits from WebApplicationException and is used to encapsulate HTTP 3xx status codes.
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