How to respond with HTTP status code in a Spring MVC @RestController @ResponseBody class returning an object?

Question

I\'m trying to have a @RestController which takes a @PathVariable return a specific object in JSON format, along with proper status code. So far th

Answer 1

A @RestController is not appropriate for this. If you need to return different types of responses, use a ResponseEntity<?> where you can explicitly set the status code.

The body of the ResponseEntity will be handled the same way as the return value of any @ResponseBody annotated method.

@RequestMapping(value = "/wells/{apiValue}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ResponseEntity<?> fetchWellData(@PathVariable String apiValue){
    try{
        OngardWell ongardWell = new OngardWell();
        ongardWell = ongardWellService.fetchOneByApi(apiValue);

        return new ResponseEntity<>(ongardWell, HttpStatus.OK);
    }catch(Exception ex){
        String errorMessage;
        errorMessage = ex + " <== error";
        return new ResponseEntity<>(errorMessage, HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
    }
}

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Note that you don't need @ResponseBody on a @RequestMapping method within a @RestController annotated class.

Answer 2

The idiomatic way would be to use an exception handler instead of catching the exception in your regular request handling method. The type of exception determines the response code. (403 for security error, 500 for unexpected platform exceptions, whatever you like)

@ExceptionHandler(MyApplicationException.class)
@ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST)
public String handleAppException(MyApplicationException ex) {
  return ex.getMessage();
}

@ExceptionHandler(Exception.class)
@ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
public String handleAppException(Exception ex) {
  return ex.getMessage();
}