My take on this is that users of [email] are looking for a package that simplifies the JavaMail api. And one of the big simplifing aspects is that the Exceptions that they have to catch are minimized. Most users will probably not care *what* the exception was, only that there *was* an exception, and just pass it up the chain. For folks who actually have code to deal with the specific exception, then they are either going to use the JavaMail api directly without the extra layer of [email], or we should provide a way for them to retrieve the specific Exception.
Hence that is why I propose that we have two types of exceptions: EmailException and RuntimeEmailException. For common exceptions, we throw an EmailException which is an extension of NestableException and wraps whatever the underlying JavaMail exception was. This provides a nice facade for people who don't care what the exception was, but allows folks who do to get the underlying exception. The other RuntimeEmailException will extend NestableRuntimeException and can be used for any runtime exceptions in the same manner as EmailException. For the case of the UEE, that would be another exception in the API to throw, which goes against the charter that: "contains a set of Java classes providing a thin convenience layer over JavaMail". So, in that case, throw the approapriate EmailException and that will wrap the UEE. Mark, is it possible to use the 1.4 io stuff conditionally? I guess not, but we could think about maybe how we compile the jar? Our primary target is definitly 1.3 for now though. Eric > -----Original Message----- > From: Mark Lowe [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 4:04 PM > To: Commons dev list; Corey Scott > Subject: [email] Exceptions > > > The issue of exceptions has come up a few times, and heres a summary > of my understanding of whats been said and agreed and disagreed about. > > The idea of throwing AddressException is favourable, but not at the > cost of needing to throw UnsupportingEncodingException. When setting > InternetAddress() this throws a UEE and AddressException. > > My position is that without 1.4's new io package there's no means of > checking supported charsets on a given JVM. If the user enters a shady > charset for a email address or name is there anything wrong with them > having a UEE thrown? > > The lightest means of doing this in my opinion is just throw both, its > consistent with the mailapi. It would work on all target JVMs. > > Of course you could just throw MessagingException for everything , "oh > thats what it does". But is this a useful and therefore good thing? > Having a commons.mail.EmailException was suggested, but does that > have any advantage over throwing AddressException and UEE? I'm not > sure. > > I don't mind summitting the patches, i need to do this for a project > I'm working on at present, so I need to do the work anyway. It makes > sense to submit this to the effort but I don't mind either way. > > Mark > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
