Error handling inside RxJS mergeMap operator

Question

When I make a GET request using the Angular HttpClient, I get an observable back and process it within the RxJS operator mergeMap.

Now it happens that again and again a 404 is thrown, which I would like to catch. Finally, no error message should appear in the browser console and the pipe should be processed with the next value of the stream.

Is there a possibility for that? I did not manage it with catchError().

Here is a simplified version of my code:

    ...
    this.service1.getSomeStuff().pipe(
          mergeMap((someStuff) => {
            return from(stuff);
          }),
          mergeMap((stuff) => {
            return this.service2.getMoreStuff(stuff.id); // Here I need some error handling, if 404 occurs
          }),
          mergeMap((things) => {
            return from(things).pipe(
              mergeMap((thing) => {
                if (allLocations.some(x => x.id === metaData.id)) {
                  return this.service2.getMore(thing.id, thing.type, thing.img_ref);
                }
              }),
              map((thing) => {
              ...

---

UPDATE: Added approach with catchError()

I tried it that way, but the error is not detected and the next mergeMap does not work (IDE does not recognize parameter like thing.id, thing.type, thing.img_ref anymore):

...
this.service1.getSomeStuff().pipe(
      mergeMap((someStuff) => {
        return from(stuff);
      }),
      mergeMap((stuff) => {
        return this.service2.getMoreStuff(stuff.id).pipe(
          catchError(val => of(`Error`))
        );
      }),
      mergeMap((things) => {
        return from(things).pipe(
          mergeMap((thing) => {
            if (allLocations.some(x => x.id === metaData.id)) {
              return this.service2.getMore(thing.id, thing.type, thing.img_ref);
            }
          }),
          map((thing) => {
          ...

Answer 1

You'll need to use retry or retryWhen (names are pretty self-explanatory) — these operators will retry a failed subscription (resubscribe to the source observable, once an error is emitted.

To raise the id upon each retry — you could lock it in a scope, like this:

const { throwError, of, timer } = rxjs;
const { tap, retry, switchMap } = rxjs.operators;

console.log('starting...');

getDetails(0)
  .subscribe(console.log);


function getDetails(id){
  // retries will restart here
  return of('').pipe(
    switchMap(() => mockHttpGet(id).pipe(
      // upon error occurence -- raise the id
      tap({ error(err){
        id++;
        console.log(err);
      }})
    )),  
    retry(5) // just limiting the number of retries
             // you could go limitless with `retry()`
  )
}

function mockHttpGet(id){
  return timer(500).pipe(
    switchMap(()=>
      id >= 3
      ? of('success: ' + id)
      : throwError('failed for ' + id)
    )
  );
}

<script src="https://unpkg.com/rxjs@6.4.0/bundles/rxjs.umd.min.js"></script>

Please, note that it would be wiser to have a conditional retry to retry only on 404 errors. That could be achieved via retryWhen, e.g.

// pseudocode
retryWhen(errors$ => errors$.pipe(filter(err => err.status === '404')))

Check this article on error handling in rxjs to get more affluent with retry and retryWhen.

Hope this helps

---

UPDATE: there are also other ways to achieve that:

const { throwError, of, timer, EMPTY } = rxjs;
const { switchMap, concatMap, map, catchError, take } = rxjs.operators;

console.log('starting...');

getDetails(0)
  .subscribe(console.log);


function getDetails(id){
  // make an infinite stream of retries
  return timer(0, 0).pipe(
    map(x => x + id),
    concatMap(newId => mockHttpGet(newId).pipe(
      // upon error occurence -- suppress it
      catchError(err => {
        console.log(err);
        // TODO: ensure its 404

        // we return EMPTY, to continue
        // with the next timer tick
        return EMPTY;
      })
    )),
    // we'll be fine with first passed success
    take(1)
  )
}

function mockHttpGet(id){
  return timer(500).pipe(
    switchMap(()=>
      id >= 3
      ? of('success: ' + id)
      : throwError('failed for ' + id)
    )
  );
}

<script src="https://unpkg.com/rxjs@6.4.0/bundles/rxjs.umd.min.js"></script>