What should a JSON service return on failure / error

Question

I\'m writing a JSON service in C# (.ashx file). On a successful request to the service I return some JSON data. If the request fails, either because an exception was thrown

Answer 1

I've spend some hours solving this problem. My solution is based on the following wishes/requirements:

• Don't have repetitive boilerplate error handling code in all JSON controller actions.
• Preserve HTTP (error) status codes. Why? Because higher level concerns should not affect lower level implementation.
• Be able to get JSON data when an error/exception occur on the server. Why? Because I might want rich error information. E.g. error message, domain specific error status code, stack trace (in debug/development environment).
• Ease of use client side - preferable using jQuery.

I create a HandleErrorAttribute (see code comments for explanation of the details). A few details including "usings" has been left out, so the code might not compile. I add the filter to the global filters during application initialization in Global.asax.cs like this:

GlobalFilters.Filters.Add(new UnikHandleErrorAttribute());

Attribute:

namespace Foo
{
  using System;
  using System.Diagnostics;
  using System.Linq;
  using System.Net;
  using System.Reflection;
  using System.Web;
  using System.Web.Mvc;

  /// 

  /// Generel error handler attribute for Foo MVC solutions.
  /// It handles uncaught exceptions from controller actions.
  /// It outputs trace information.
  /// If custom errors are enabled then the following is performed:
  /// 

  ///   
If the controller action return type is  then a  object with a message property is returned.
  ///       If the exception is of type  it's message will be used as the  message property value.
  ///       Otherwise a localized resource text will be used.
  /// 
  /// Otherwise the exception will pass through unhandled.
  /// 
  [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class | AttributeTargets.Method)]
  public sealed class FooHandleErrorAttribute : HandleErrorAttribute
  {
    private readonly TraceSource _TraceSource;

    /// 

    ///  must not be null.
    /// 
    /// 
    public FooHandleErrorAttribute(TraceSource traceSource)
    {
      if (traceSource == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException(@"traceSource");
      _TraceSource = traceSource;
    }

    public TraceSource TraceSource
    {
      get
      {
        return _TraceSource;
      }
    }

    /// 

    /// Ctor.
    /// 
    public FooHandleErrorAttribute()
    {
      var className = typeof(FooHandleErrorAttribute).FullName ?? typeof(FooHandleErrorAttribute).Name;
      _TraceSource = new TraceSource(className);
    }

    public override void OnException(ExceptionContext filterContext)
    {
      var actionMethodInfo = GetControllerAction(filterContext.Exception);
      // It's probably an error if we cannot find a controller action. But, hey, what should we do about it here?
      if(actionMethodInfo == null) return;

      var controllerName = filterContext.Controller.GetType().FullName; // filterContext.RouteData.Values[@"controller"];
      var actionName = actionMethodInfo.Name; // filterContext.RouteData.Values[@"action"];

      // Log the exception to the trace source
      var traceMessage = string.Format(@"Unhandled exception from {0}.{1} handled in {2}. Exception: {3}", controllerName, actionName, typeof(FooHandleErrorAttribute).FullName, filterContext.Exception);
      _TraceSource.TraceEvent(TraceEventType.Error, TraceEventId.UnhandledException, traceMessage);

      // Don't modify result if custom errors not enabled
      //if (!filterContext.HttpContext.IsCustomErrorEnabled)
      //  return;

      // We only handle actions with return type of JsonResult - I don't use AjaxRequestExtensions.IsAjaxRequest() because ajax requests does NOT imply JSON result.
      // (The downside is that you cannot just specify the return type as ActionResult - however I don't consider this a bad thing)
      if (actionMethodInfo.ReturnType != typeof(JsonResult)) return;

      // Handle JsonResult action exception by creating a useful JSON object which can be used client side
      // Only provide error message if we have an MySpecialExceptionWithUserMessage.
      var jsonMessage = FooHandleErrorAttributeResources.Error_Occured;
      if (filterContext.Exception is MySpecialExceptionWithUserMessage) jsonMessage = filterContext.Exception.Message;
      filterContext.Result = new JsonResult
        {
          Data = new
            {
              message = jsonMessage,
              // Only include stacktrace information in development environment
              stacktrace = MyEnvironmentHelper.IsDebugging ? filterContext.Exception.StackTrace : null
            },
          // Allow JSON get requests because we are already using this approach. However, we should consider avoiding this habit.
          JsonRequestBehavior = JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet
        };

      // Exception is now (being) handled - set the HTTP error status code and prevent caching! Otherwise you'll get an HTTP 200 status code and running the risc of the browser caching the result.
      filterContext.ExceptionHandled = true;
      filterContext.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError; // Consider using more error status codes depending on the type of exception
      filterContext.HttpContext.Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);

      // Call the overrided method
      base.OnException(filterContext);
    }

    /// 

    /// Does anybody know a better way to obtain the controller action method info?
    /// See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2770303/how-to-find-in-which-controller-action-an-error-occurred.
    /// 
    /// 
    /// 
    private static MethodInfo GetControllerAction(Exception exception)
    {
      var stackTrace = new StackTrace(exception);
      var frames = stackTrace.GetFrames();
      if(frames == null) return null;
      var frame = frames.FirstOrDefault(f => typeof(IController).IsAssignableFrom(f.GetMethod().DeclaringType));
      if (frame == null) return null;
      var actionMethod = frame.GetMethod();
      return actionMethod as MethodInfo;
    }
  }
}

I've developed the following jQuery plugin for client side ease of use:

(function ($, undefined) {
  "using strict";

  $.FooGetJSON = function (url, data, success, error) {
    /// 

    /// **********************************************************
    /// * UNIK GET JSON JQUERY PLUGIN.                           *
    /// **********************************************************
    /// This plugin is a wrapper for jQuery.getJSON.
    /// The reason is that jQuery.getJSON success handler doesn't provides access to the JSON object returned from the url
    /// when a HTTP status code different from 200 is encountered. However, please note that whether there is JSON
    /// data or not depends on the requested service. if there is no JSON data (i.e. response.responseText cannot be
    /// parsed as JSON) then the data parameter will be undefined.
    ///
    /// This plugin solves this problem by providing a new error handler signature which includes a data parameter.
    /// Usage of the plugin is much equal to using the jQuery.getJSON method. Handlers can be added etc. However,
    /// the only way to obtain an error handler with the signature specified below with a JSON data parameter is
    /// to call the plugin with the error handler parameter directly specified in the call to the plugin.
    ///
    /// success: function(data, textStatus, jqXHR)
    /// error: function(data, jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown)
    ///
    /// Example usage:
    ///
    ///   $.FooGetJSON('/foo', { id: 42 }, function(data) { alert('Name :' + data.name); }, function(data) { alert('Error: ' + data.message); });
    /// 

    // Call the ordinary jQuery method
    var jqxhr = $.getJSON(url, data, success);

    // Do the error handler wrapping stuff to provide an error handler with a JSON object - if the response contains JSON object data
    if (typeof error !== "undefined") {
      jqxhr.error(function(response, textStatus, errorThrown) {
        try {
          var json = $.parseJSON(response.responseText);
          error(json, response, textStatus, errorThrown);
        } catch(e) {
          error(undefined, response, textStatus, errorThrown);
        }
      });
    }

    // Return the jQueryXmlHttpResponse object
    return jqxhr;
  };
})(jQuery);

What do I get from all this? The final result is that

• None of my controller actions has requirements on HandleErrorAttributes.
• None of my controller actions contains any repetitive boiler plate error handling code.
• I have a single point of error handling code allowing me to easily change logging and other error handling related stuff.
• A simple requirement: Controller actions returning JsonResult's must have return type JsonResult and not some base type like ActionResult. Reason: See code comment in FooHandleErrorAttribute.

Client side example:

var success = function(data) {
  alert(data.myjsonobject.foo);
};
var onError = function(data) {
  var message = "Error";
  if(typeof data !== "undefined")
    message += ": " + data.message;
  alert(message);
};
$.FooGetJSON(url, params, onSuccess, onError);

Comments are most welcome! I'll probably blog about this solution some day...