Hi All,

An API Working Group Guideline for Errors

https://review.openstack.org/#/c/167793/

Errors are a crucial part of the developer experience when using an API. As 
developers learn the API they inevitably run into errors. The quality and 
consistency of the error messages returned to them will play a large part in 
how quickly they can learn the API, how they can be more effective with the 
API, and how much they enjoy using the API.

We need consistency across all services for the error format returned in the 
response body.


The Way Forward

I did a bit of research into the current state of consistency in errors across 
OpenStack services [1]. Since no services seem to respond with a top-level 
"errors" key, it's possible that they could just include this key in the 
response body along with their usual response and the 2 can live side-by-side 
for some deprecation period. Hopefully those services with unstructured errors 
should okay with adding some structure. That said, the current error formats 
aren't documented anywhere that I've seen so this all feels fair game anyway.

How this would get implemented in code is up to you. It could eventually be 
implemented in all projects individually or perhaps a Oslo utility is called 
for. However, this discussion is not about the implementation. This discussion 
is about the error format.


The Review

I’ve explicitly added all of the API WG and Logging WG CPLs as reviewers to 
that patch but feedback from all is welcome. You can find a more readable 
version of patch set 4 at [2]. I see the "id" and “code” fields as the 
connection point to what the logging working group is doing.


Thanks,
Everett


[1] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/API_Working_Group/Current_Design/Errors
[2] 
http://docs-draft.openstack.org/93/167793/4/check/gate-api-wg-docs/e2f5b6e//doc/build/html/guidelines/errors.html


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