On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 12:10:37 +0800, Nathan Coast <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been strugling for a while with exception handling. I've been
> trying to ensure:
> 1) all exceptions are displayed consistently regardless of where / how
> the exception is raised.
> 2) the root cause exception is always displayed,
>
> I'm not saying this is the best solution, nor even a 'correct' solution,
> but it is a way I have found that works with the least amount of coding
> - so I thought it'd be useful to share.
>
> I have tested the following situations where exceptions are raised
> 1) Action
> 2) JSP
> 3) JSP compile error
> 4) a jsp included by tiles / jsp:include / jsp:forward
> 5) an action included by tiles / jsp:include / jsp:forward
> 6) exception raised in a tag class
>
> cases 4,5 were the only real problem as most attempts to handle
> exceptions resulted in an IllegalStateException or the error page
> appearing nested within some other page.
>
> solution overview:
> all errors go to a single error jsp, this error page locates the root
> cause exception and places the throwable into the session. The jsp then
> redirects the browser to a second jsp (using meta-refresh) this
> ViewError.jsp retrieves the error from the session and displays it.
>
> Details:
>
> 1) define a single Error JSP
>
> /WEB-INF/pages/Error.jsp:
> **************************************************
>
> <%@ page isErrorPage="true" %>
> <%@ page import="org.apache.struts.Globals" %>
> <%@ page import="org.apache.commons.lang.exception.ExceptionUtils" %>
> <%
> //check for tag exceptions that are the 'real' exception
> Throwable th = (Throwable) request.getAttribute(Globals.EXCEPTION_KEY);
> if (th == null)
> {
> th = exception;
> }
> //check exception for root cause using commons-lang ExceptionUtils
> Throwable rootCause = ExceptionUtils.getCause(th);
> if(rootCause != null)
> {
> th = rootCause;
> }
> //best place to log errors is here
> session.setAttribute("some_key", th);
> %>
> <html>
> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0;url=<%=request.getContextPath()
> %>/ViewError.jsp">
> </html>
>
> ***************************************************
>
> 2) place this directive within every jsp page:
> <%@ page errorPage="/WEB-INF/pages/Error.jsp" %>
>
> 3) define the following error-page in web.xml
>
> <error-page>
> <exception-type>java.lang.Throwable</exception-type>
> <location>/WEB-INF/pages/Error.jsp</location>
> </error-page>
>
If we do (3) I believe we don't have to (2) in each and every jsp. Isn't it?
> 4) Define your ViewError.jsp
>
> The ViewError.jsp contains the exception display code that you would
> normally place in your error jsp. ViewError.jsp is not a jsp error page
> (no isErrorPage directive) and you need to include code to retrieve /
> remove the Throwable from the session:
>
> ViewError.jsp snip:
> ***************************************************
>
> <%
> Throwable ex = (Throwable) session.getAttribute("some_key");
> session.removeAttribute("some_key");
> %>
> //display the error:
> <pre>
> <% ex.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(out)); %>
> </pre>
>
> ***************************************************
>
> I prefer all jsps to be beneath WEB-INF/pages so I define a simple
> action class to access my ViewError.jsp and redirect to /ViewError.do in
> my Error.jsp (you can skip this step if your /ViewError.jsp is not
> beneath /WEB-INF)
>
> I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any better solutions as this
> still feels a little ugly:
>
> 1) all jsps having the error page defined is there no way to set the
> error-page globally
> 2) saving and retrieving all 'real' tag exceptions via the request and
> throwing an intermediate JspException (can be avoided if all tag classes
> wrap root cause exceptions in the JspException) there seems to be plenty
> of code like this in struts:
> catch (ClassCastException e) {
> saveException(pageContext, e);
> throw new JspException(blah blah blah);
> }
> I think the JspException(Throwable) constructor was added in jsp 2.0 so
> I guess backwards compatability is why this isn't in struts (yet).
> 3) redirecting browsers, saving and retrieving exceptions in sessions
>
> I still feel like I should be able to define my error handling mechanism
> in one place (like in web.xml) and job done.
>
> cheers
> Nathan
>
> --
> Nathan Coast
> Managing Director
> Codeczar Ltd
> mob : (852) 9049 5581
> tel : (852) 2834 8733
> fax : (852) 2834 8755
> web : http://www.codeczar.com
>
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