spring - Spring3 @ExceptionHandler for ServletRequestBindingException

Question

I am using a Default AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter which I believe should enable support for @ExceptionHandler. Unluckily, a ServletRequestBindingException is thrown if a call to a handler method like this below is coming in - and not Exception handler is invoked.

@RequestMapping(value = "/v1/products/{code}", method = RequestMethod.GET, headers = "Accept=application/xml,application/json")
@ResponseBody
public ProductDemoDTO getProductByCode(@PathVariable final String code,
        @RequestParam(required = false, defaultValue = "BASIC") final String options)
{
    //omitted
}

Here teh ExceptionHandler, never called:

@ExceptionHandler(Throwable.class)
@ResponseBody
@ResponseStatus(value = HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST)
//TODO not being called?
public void handleException(final Exception e, final HttpServletRequest request, final Writer writer) throws IOException
{
    writer.write(String.format("{"error":{"java.class":"%s", "message":"%s"}}", e.getClass(), e.getMessage()));
}

Does anyone know why the ExceptionHandler is not called?

Answer 1

This issue is fixed in Spring 3.2. You can create a global exception handler class with the @ControllerAdvice annotation. Then in that class add an @ExceptionHandler method to handle the ServletRequestBindingException and return a custom response body. Example:

@ControllerAdvice
public class GlobalExceptionHandler {
  @ExceptionHandler(ServletRequestBindingException.class)
  public ResponseEntity<String> handleServletRequestBindingException(ServletRequestBindingException ex)   {
      return new ResponseEntity<String>("MISSING REQUIRED HEADER",HttpStatus.PRECONDITION_REQUIRED);
  }
}

For more information check the spring mvc docs: 17.11 Handling exceptions