Disable *all* exception handling in ASP.NET Web API 2 (to make room for my own)?

Question

I want to wire up exception handling in a middleware component, something like this:

public override async Task Invoke(IOwinContext context)
{
    try
    {
         


        

Answer 1

Not sure if this will work for you, but I have a similar requirement to send all errors back as JSON even for not found errors. I created a base controller and overrode the ExecuteAsync allowing me to create my own responses.

public class ControllerBase : ApiController
{
    protected string ClassName = "ControllerBase::";

    public override System.Threading.Tasks.Task ExecuteAsync(System.Web.Http.Controllers.HttpControllerContext controllerContext, System.Threading.CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        try
        {
            System.Threading.Tasks.Task TaskList = base.ExecuteAsync(controllerContext, cancellationToken);

            if (TaskList.Exception != null && TaskList.Exception.GetBaseException() != null)
            {
                JSONErrorResponse AsyncError = new JSONErrorResponse();
                AsyncError.ExceptionMessage = TaskList.Exception.GetBaseException().Message;
                AsyncError.ErrorMessage = string.Format("Unknown error {0} ExecuteAsync {1}", ClassName ,controllerContext.Request.RequestUri.AbsolutePath);
                AsyncError.HttpErrorCode = HttpStatusCode.BadRequest;

                HttpResponseMessage ErrorResponse = controllerContext.Request.CreateResponse(AsyncError.HttpErrorCode, AsyncError);

                return System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Run(() => ErrorResponse);
            }
            return TaskList;
        }
        catch (Exception Error)
        {
            JSONErrorResponse BadParameters = new JSONErrorResponse();
            BadParameters.ExceptionMessage = Error.Message;
            BadParameters.ErrorMessage = string.Format("Method [{0}], or URL [{1}] not found, verify your request", controllerContext.Request.Method.Method, controllerContext.Request.RequestUri.AbsolutePath);
            BadParameters.HttpErrorCode = HttpStatusCode.NotFound;
            HttpResponseMessage ErrorResponse = controllerContext.Request.CreateResponse(BadParameters.HttpErrorCode, BadParameters);

            return System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Run(() => ErrorResponse);
        }
    }
}

public class JSONErrorResponse
{
    //Possible message from exception
    public string ExceptionMessage { get; set; }
    //Possible custom error message
    public string ErrorMessage { get; set; }
    //Http error code
    public HttpStatusCode HttpErrorCode { get; set; }
}