Spring boot 404 error custom error response ReST

Question

I'm using Spring boot for hosting a REST API. Instead of having the standard error response I would like to always send a JSON response even if a browser is accessing the URL and as well a custom data structure.

I can do this with @ControllerAdvice and @ExceptionHandler for custom exceptions. But I can't find any good ways of doing this for standard and handled errors like 404 and 401.

Are there any good patterns of how to do this?

Solution 1

For those Spring Boot 2 users who don't wanna use @EnableWebMvc

application.properties

server.error.whitelabel.enabled=false
spring.mvc.throw-exception-if-no-handler-found=true
spring.resources.add-mappings=false

ControllerAdvice

@RestControllerAdvice
public class ExceptionResolver {

    @ExceptionHandler(NoHandlerFoundException.class)
    @ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND)
    public HashMap<String, String> handleNoHandlerFound(NoHandlerFoundException e, WebRequest request) {
        HashMap<String, String> response = new HashMap<>();
        response.put("status", "fail");
        response.put("message", e.getLocalizedMessage());
        return response;
    }
}

Source

Solution 2

It is worked for me in case of @RestControllerAdvice with spring boot

spring.mvc.throw-exception-if-no-handler-found=true
server.error.whitelabel.enabled=false
spring.resources.add-mappings=false

@RestControllerAdvice
public class ErrorHandlerController {

@ExceptionHandler(NoHandlerFoundException.class)
@ResponseStatus(value = HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND )
public String handleNotFoundError(NoHandlerFoundException ex) {
    return "path does not exists";
}
}

Solution 3

I've provided the sample solution on how to override response for 404 case. The solution is pretty much simple and I am posting sample code but you can find more details on the original thread: Spring Boot Rest - How to configure 404 - resource not found

First: define Controller that will process error cases and override response:

@ControllerAdvice
public class ExceptionHandlerController {

    @ExceptionHandler(NoHandlerFoundException.class)
    @ResponseStatus(value= HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND)
    @ResponseBody
    public ErrorResponse requestHandlingNoHandlerFound() {
        return new ErrorResponse("custom_404", "message for 404 error code");
    }
}

Second: you need to tell Spring to throw exception in case of 404 (could not resolve handler):

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableWebMvc
public class Application {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ApplicationContext ctx = SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);

        DispatcherServlet dispatcherServlet = (DispatcherServlet)ctx.getBean("dispatcherServlet");
        dispatcherServlet.setThrowExceptionIfNoHandlerFound(true);
    }
}

Solution 4

Summing up all answers and comment, I think the best way to do this is-

First, tell spring boot to throw exception in case of no handler found in application.properties

spring.mvc.throw-exception-if-no-handler-found=true

Then handle NoHandlerFoundException in your application. I handle this by following way

@ControllerAdvice
public class GlobalExceptionHandler {
    @ExceptionHandler(NoHandlerFoundException.class)
    public void handleNotFoundError(HttpServletResponse response, NoHandlerFoundException ex) {
        ErrorDto errorDto = Errors.URL_NOT_FOUND.getErrorDto();
        logger.error("URL not found exception: " + ex.getRequestURL());
        prepareErrorResponse(response, HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND, errorDto);
    }
}

If you are using Swagger then you can view my other answer to exclude swagger URL from this exception handler

Solution 5

404 error is handled by DispatcherServlet. there is a property throwExceptionIfNoHandlerFound, which you can override.

In Application class you can create a new bean:

@Bean
DispatcherServlet dispatcherServlet () {
    DispatcherServlet ds = new DispatcherServlet();
    ds.setThrowExceptionIfNoHandlerFound(true);
    return ds;
}

...and then catch the NoHandlerFoundException exception in

@EnableWebMvc
@ControllerAdvice
public class GlobalControllerExceptionHandler {
    @ExceptionHandler
    @ResponseStatus(value=HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND)
    @ResponseBody
    public ErrorMessageResponse requestHandlingNoHandlerFound(final NoHandlerFoundException ex) {
        doSomething(LOG.debug("text to log"));
    }
}

View more solutions

Comments

[Opal]

Markus, does my answer solve the problem? If so, please accept it.

[Markus]

True, but in this case I'm interested in the 401 and 404 cases in order to be able to have one common error response for all errors to the clients. I don't want to have different structures of error response and as well never respond with anything other than for example JSON.

[Markus]

Yes, but in this case a html error is not suitable due to only rest clients are used.

[Opal]

The structure I presented is the default JSON error response structure. If you need only 401 or 404 just add appropriate exceptions instead of MethodArgumentNotValidException and change the method body.

[zbstof]

Or use spring.mvc.throw-exception-if-no-handler-found=true property instead of a custom DispatcherServlet bean

[Reema]

Is there any way to do this without using the annotation @EnableWebMvc I dont want to enable Web MVC

[Reema]

Is there any way to do this without using the annotation @EnableWebMvc I dont want to enable Web MVC

[Ace Eusebio]

Hi @Reema! Were you able to do it without @EnableWebMvc? I would want to do it without it as well.

[Reema]

No, I haven’t got any solution for this yet!

[Steve]

Doesn't work. java.lang.IllegalStateException: Ambiguous @ExceptionHandler method mapped for [class org.springframework.web.servlet.NoHandlerFoundException]

[ptrckdev]

What are reason to not use @EnableWebMvc ?

[fightlight]

@ptrckdev Adding @EnableWebMvc disables autoconfiguration. See here and here

[RomanMitasov]

spring.resources.add-mappings=false disabled swagger-ui in my service. Is there some workarounds for that?

[Jonas Pedersen]

Properties needed in Spring 2.6.x is: spring.mvc.throw-exception-if-no-handler-found=true spring.web.resources.add-mappings=false