Laravel API, how to properly handle errors

Question

Anyone know what is the best way to handle errors in Laravel, there is any rules or something to follow ?

Currently i'm doing this :

public function store(Request $request)
{
  $plate = Plate::create($request->all());

  if ($plate) {
    return $this->response($this->plateTransformer->transform($plate));
  } else {
    // Error handling ?
    // Error 400 bad request
    $this->setStatusCode(400);
    return $this->responseWithError("Store failed.");
  }
}

And the setStatusCode and responseWithError come from the father of my controller :

public function setStatusCode($statusCode)
{
    $this->statusCode = $statusCode;

    return $this;
}

public function responseWithError ($message )
{
    return $this->response([
        'error' => [
            'message' => $message,
            'status_code' => $this->getStatusCode()
        ]
    ]);

}

But is this a good way to handle the API errors, i see some different way to handle errors on the web, what is the best ?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Try this, i have used it in my project (app/Exceptions/Handler.php)

public function render($request, Exception $exception)
{
    if ($request->wantsJson()) {   //add Accept: application/json in request
        return $this->handleApiException($request, $exception);
    } else {
        $retval = parent::render($request, $exception);
    }

    return $retval;
}

Now Handle Api exception

private function handleApiException($request, Exception $exception)
{
    $exception = $this->prepareException($exception);

    if ($exception instanceof \Illuminate\Http\Exception\HttpResponseException) {
        $exception = $exception->getResponse();
    }

    if ($exception instanceof \Illuminate\Auth\AuthenticationException) {
        $exception = $this->unauthenticated($request, $exception);
    }

    if ($exception instanceof \Illuminate\Validation\ValidationException) {
        $exception = $this->convertValidationExceptionToResponse($exception, $request);
    }

    return $this->customApiResponse($exception);
}

After that custom Api handler response

private function customApiResponse($exception)
{
    if (method_exists($exception, 'getStatusCode')) {
        $statusCode = $exception->getStatusCode();
    } else {
        $statusCode = 500;
    }

    $response = [];

    switch ($statusCode) {
        case 401:
            $response['message'] = 'Unauthorized';
            break;
        case 403:
            $response['message'] = 'Forbidden';
            break;
        case 404:
            $response['message'] = 'Not Found';
            break;
        case 405:
            $response['message'] = 'Method Not Allowed';
            break;
        case 422:
            $response['message'] = $exception->original['message'];
            $response['errors'] = $exception->original['errors'];
            break;
        default:
            $response['message'] = ($statusCode == 500) ? 'Whoops, looks like something went wrong' : $exception->getMessage();
            break;
    }

    if (config('app.debug')) {
        $response['trace'] = $exception->getTrace();
        $response['code'] = $exception->getCode();
    }

    $response['status'] = $statusCode;

    return response()->json($response, $statusCode);
}

Always add Accept: application/json in your api or json request.