Implementing Generic Exception Handling for all Resources

As we discussed earlier that we should define a standard exception structure which is followed across all the RESTful services. In this section, we will discuss the implementation of generic exception handling for all resources.

Let's see how to customize the exception message.

Step 1: Create a new package with name com.w3cschoool.server.main.exception.

Step 2: Create a class with the name ExceptionResponse in the above package.

Step 3: At the basic level, there are three crucial things for the exception structure: timestamp, message, and detail. Define these three fields.

Step 4: Generate Constructors using Fields.

Step 5: Generate Getters, Setters are not needed.

Once the structure is defined, we can define Java implementation for it. Whenever an exception occurs, we would return a response in the specific format. The structure is the most important part and must have to be language independent.

One of the important class in Spring Framework is ResponseEntityExceptionHandler class. It is an abstract and base class for the exceptions that provide centralized exception handling across all the different exception handler methods. We will extend this class to handle and provide customized exception handling functionality. This exception handling functionality is applied to all controller as HellowWorldController, UserResource (Controller).

Step 6: Create a new class with name CustomizedResponseEntityExceptionHandler in the package com.w3cschoool.server.main.exception and extends ResponseEntityExceptionHandler class.

Step 7: Add @ControllerAdvice and @RestController annotations.

Step 8: Expand Maven Dependencies in the package explorer -> Expand spring-webmvc-5.1.9.RELEASE.jar -> Expand org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation -> Open ResponseEntityExceptionHandler.class.

Step 9: Copy the ResponseEntityMethod