I have an HttpHandler that is returning `HTTP/1.1 400 body 'body' must be object` This message is hi...

# http4k

[elifarley]

I have an HttpHandler that is returning HTTP/1.1 400 body 'body' must be object
This message is hiding an exception. How can I get hold of it?
I have these filters:

routes(
"/sgzr/api/v1" bind Api.router(productService, orderService)
).let {
DebuggingFilters.PrintRequestAndResponse()
                .then(ServerFilters.Cors(CorsPolicy.UnsafeGlobalPermissive))
                .then(ServerFilters.CatchAll())
                .then(ServerFilters.CatchLensFailure)
                .then(it)
}

[elifarley]

I think it would be nice to have the exception message or even the stack trace included in the response body

[elifarley]

And does the order of CatchAll and CatchLensFailure matter ?

[dave]

the ordering does matter - the CatchAll will turn any uncaught exception into a 500. The CatchLensFailure catches LensFailures and turns them into a 400

[dave]

the LensFailure DOES contain the exception that caused it, so if you write you own CatchLensFailure implementation you can do as you please for the moment:

object CatchLensFailure : Filter {
        override fun invoke(next: HttpHandler): HttpHandler = {
            try {
                next(it)
            } catch (lensFailure: LensFailure) {
                when {
                    lensFailure.target is Response -> throw lensFailure
                    lensFailure.target is RequestContext -> throw lensFailure
                    lensFailure.overall() == Failure.Type.Unsupported -> Response(UNSUPPORTED_MEDIA_TYPE)
                    else -> Response(BAD_REQUEST.description(lensFailure.failures.joinToString("; ")))
                }
            }
        }
    }

[elifarley]

It turns out I only needed to invert the order of the 2 catchers, which now is:

.then(ServerFilters.CatchLensFailure)
.then(ServerFilters.CatchAll())

Before this, only HTTP/1.1 400 body 'body' must be object would appear
By doing this, a nice stack trace appears on stdout (only

[elifarley]

Here's what I get now:

HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error

org.http4k.lens.LensFailure: body 'body' must be object
	at org.http4k.contract.ContractRouteSpec$invoke$1.invoke(routeSpec.kt:31)
	at org.http4k.contract.ContractRouteSpec$invoke$1.invoke(routeSpec.kt:11)
	at org.http4k.core.Http4kKt$then$2.invoke(Http4k.kt:19)
[,...]

[elifarley]

But your suggestion seems better

[elifarley]

The Lens Failure was caused by an InvalidJSONException: Could not convert to a JSON Object or Array. I want to have this information readily available. I'll follow your suggestion of creating a custom CatchLensFailure

[dave]

yep - it's a general failure. are you using GSON?

[elifarley]

yep

[dave]

ok - currently we swallow the exception and it isn't passed to the InvalidJsonException. I'll change that to add the cause

[dave]

(which might give you a better example of what's going on and why your JSON is invalid)

[dave]

actually - it looks like that exception is directly caused by something in your code not being able to convert a string to an object or an array:

override fun String.asJsonObject(): JsonElement = JsonParser().parse(this).let { if(it.isJsonArray || it.isJsonObject) it else throw InvalidJsonException() }

[elifarley]

that would be great, thanks!

[elifarley]

in fact, the problem is that the reference is null

[dave]

so there isn't currently a cause to display

[elifarley]

But at least there's the name of the exception to be shown - InvalidJsonException

[dave]

yeah - you can see that the parse doesn't fail - it fails the test in the let

[elifarley]

Maybe throw InvalidJsonException("Not an array nor an object: $it")

[elifarley]

would it make sense?

[dave]

yeah - I'll change it to be a message

[elifarley]

Having more contextual information on the exception feels good.

[elifarley]

Here's how I would change the LensFailure class:

open class LensFailure(val failures: List<Failure>, override val cause: Exception? = null, val target: Any? = null)
    : Exception(failures.joinToString { "$it" } + (cause?.let { " ($it)" } ?: ""), cause) {

[elifarley]

Does it look good?

[dave]

no need to change the LensFailure. we've already got the cause as a field if we need it - you can get the message from there.

[dave]

Generally we use the message as a general purpose thing and then we can drill down to get the cause message if we need it

[elifarley]

got it

[dave]

so in your new CatchLensFailure filter, you can just access the cause and then add it if required

[elifarley]

yep, exactly