[QPID-7908] [Java Broker, REST] Improve exception handling and error reporting in web management

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Open
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: qpid-java-6.0, qpid-java-6.0.1, qpid-java-6.0.3, qpid-java-6.0.4, qpid-java-6.0.5, qpid-java-6.1, qpid-java-6.0.6, qpid-java-6.1.1, qpid-java-6.1.2, qpid-java-6.0.7, qpid-java-6.1.3, qpid-java-6.0.8, qpid-java-6.1.4, qpid-java-broker-7.0.0
• Fix Version/s: Future
• Component/s: Broker-J
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Alex Rudyy
• Created: 06/Sep/17 09:23
• Updated: 22/Sep/17 09:33

Description

Exception in web managements are handled in multiple places:

• RestServlet itself
• ExceptionHandlingFilter
• HttpManagement$ErrorHandler

Exception handling in RestServlet results in json response generation with error details, but exception handling in ExceptionHandlingFilter and HttpManagement$ErrorHandler does not produce the json response. As result, REST client can receive empty response claiming to be application/json or text/plain response, when valid application/json response is expected.

We need to improve the exception handling and generate application/json response with error details for any REST application/json request.
Additionally we can formalize and improve the format of the response with error details. At the moment, out response consist of errorMessage field. Potentially, we can improve the error response format that follow some of common practices for errored responses.