Let's say I have a student Rails API which having an endpoint that looks like http://www.example.com/students/1
What is the preferred way to implement?
review = Review.find(inputs[:review_id])
To handle exceptions,
rescue_from Exception, :with => :internal_error
def internal_error(e)
render json: {error: {message: "Internal Error"} }, :status => 500
end
OR
review = Review.where(inputs[:review_id]).first
if review.nil?
render json: {error: {message: "Internal Error"} }, :status => 500
end
My question is which is better way for handling non-existent id through the url.
You should go with the first approach
# reviews_controller.rb
review = Review.find(inputs[:review_id])
And
# application_controller.rb
# rescue_from Exception, :with => :internal_error
# OR Prefer ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, :with => :internal_error # Prefer this one
def internal_error(e)
render json: {error: {message: "Internal Error"} }, :status => 500
end
To make it generic, Add it to application_controller.rb
NOTE:
This way you don't have to rescue it in every controller (the second approach you have to)
You can add a global rescue_from in your base controller (ApplicationController for example) and then use the find method (Best way to retrieve only one record) :
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound do |e|
render status: :not_found, json: { error: { message: e.message } }
end
Every time you try to retrieve a record, if he doesn't exist you will render an error message and a 404 status which stand for a non-existent resource.
You should use rescue for manage error
def action_name
review = Review.find(inputs[:review_id])
render json: review, status: :ok
rescue # for ever not found
render json: {}, status: :not_found,nothing: true
end
doc for status list
and you can use rescue_from on header but this works for every action
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound,with: action_name
Neither. You can just do something like:
unless review = Review.find_by(id: inputs[:review_id])
render json: {error: {message: "record not found"} }, status: :not_found
end
Benefits:
Does't require endless nil checking as mentioned in comments.
Avoids unnecessary exception handling.
Returns a more informative error message.
Suppose we have a rails API. In many controllers methods I need to set my current_object thanks to params from the request. I can then set a before_action like:
def set_current_object
if My_object.exists? params[:id]
#current_object = My_object.find params[:id]
else
render json: {error: 'Object not found'}.to_json, status:404
end
end
This is ok. But I would like to set current_object dynamically in my controllers methods. Imagine I have a show method in one controller where I need to use my current_object like:
def show
render json: {object_name: current_object.name}.to_json, status: 200
end
current_object would be a helper method like:
def current_object
if My_object.exists? params[:id]
return My_object.find params[:id]
else
render json: {error: 'Object not found'}.to_json, status:404
end
end
Then, if My_object.exists? params[:id] is false I would like to send a 404 and to stop my controller method. Like written here, it is obviously not working. Any suggestion?
You're on the right track. Typically you would implement this sort of "lazy-loading" as a method which memoizes its return value using the ||= idiom.
You simply need to modify your current_object helper so that it can trigger a 404 error when it's unable to return a valid value. Typically you would do this by raising a recognizable exception such as an ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, and handling this in your controller with a rescue_from clause.
class ApplicationController
def current_object
if My_object.exists? params[:id]
# memozie the value so subsequent calls don't hit the database
#current_object ||= My_object.find params[:id]
else
raise ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
end
end
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound with: :show_404
def show_404
render json: {error: 'Object not found'}.to_json, status:404
end
end
Now, because you're following a pretty standard Rails convention of handling ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound at the top-level of your controller hierarchy, you can now clean up your current_object method considerably. Instead of checking for the presence of a record, just try to find the record by id. If it doesn't exist, ActiveRecord will automatically raise the exception for you. In fact, your entire current_object method should be a single line of code:
class ApplicationController
def current_object
#current_object ||= My_object.find(params[:id])
end
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound with: :show_404
def show_404
render json: {error: 'Object not found'}.to_json, status:404
end
end
Assuming My_object is a model, if you simply use find, then a params[:id] that doesn't exist in the database will raise an ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound error, and Rails' ActionController::Base will catch the exception and render a 404 by default:
def current_object
My_object.find params[:id]
end
In my Rails 3.1 app, I have a rescue_from on top of the base API controller that looks like this:
rescue_from Exceptions::InvalidApiKey, :with => :invalid_api_key
in the invalid_api_key looks like this:
def invalid_api_key
Rails.logger.debug "Invalid API key"
render :json => {:error => :invalid_api_key}, :status => :forbidden
end
There is a before_filter that checks the API key and throws an InvalidApiKey exception if needed.
However, I get an AbstractController::DoubleRenderError when I try the controller with the wrong API key, as it tries to render in the exception handler and also in the original action.
How can I avoid this?
You need to return false in before_filter to stop the controller's chain.
Otherwise, it firstly renders error in invalid_api_key and goes to called action using "usual" flow (since you've rescued from exception) and tries to render again from the action.
So
def invalid_api_key
Rails.logger.debug "Invalid API key"
render :json => {:error => :invalid_api_key}, :status => :forbidden
false
end
should solve the issue
There are some instances where I need to both have a template and return error codes when using respond_with in Rails 3.
I have a before filter that is as follows:
def ensure_premium
respond_with("Must be a premium user!", status: 401, location: nil) unless current_user.is_premium?
end
and a create action that does the following:
def create
#wait_list = #hangout.wait_lists.find_or_create_by(user_id: current_user.id)
respond_with(#wait_list) do |format|
format.json {render 'create', status: 201}
end
end
Even though the before filter trips, it still tries to render the template which results in an error. What am I missing to get it to return the right error and status code and not render the template?
You have multiple respond_with's for the create action. But I think more critically, you might need:
def ensure_premium
respond_with :json => {:error => "Must be a premium user!", :status => :unauthorized } unless....
I don't think this is the problem, but make sure in your controller you have
class SomeController < ApplicationController
respond_to :json
I ended up going a different route completely so this question is no longer valid.
I'd like to 'fake' a 404 page in Rails. In PHP, I would just send a header with the error code as such:
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
How is that done with Rails?
Don't render 404 yourself, there's no reason to; Rails has this functionality built in already. If you want to show a 404 page, create a render_404 method (or not_found as I called it) in ApplicationController like this:
def not_found
raise ActionController::RoutingError.new('Not Found')
end
Rails also handles AbstractController::ActionNotFound, and ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound the same way.
This does two things better:
1) It uses Rails' built in rescue_from handler to render the 404 page, and
2) it interrupts the execution of your code, letting you do nice things like:
user = User.find_by_email(params[:email]) or not_found
user.do_something!
without having to write ugly conditional statements.
As a bonus, it's also super easy to handle in tests. For example, in an rspec integration test:
# RSpec 1
lambda {
visit '/something/you/want/to/404'
}.should raise_error(ActionController::RoutingError)
# RSpec 2+
expect {
get '/something/you/want/to/404'
}.to raise_error(ActionController::RoutingError)
And minitest:
assert_raises(ActionController::RoutingError) do
get '/something/you/want/to/404'
end
OR refer more info from Rails render 404 not found from a controller action
HTTP 404 Status
To return a 404 header, just use the :status option for the render method.
def action
# here the code
render :status => 404
end
If you want to render the standard 404 page you can extract the feature in a method.
def render_404
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render :file => "#{Rails.root}/public/404", :layout => false, :status => :not_found }
format.xml { head :not_found }
format.any { head :not_found }
end
end
and call it in your action
def action
# here the code
render_404
end
If you want the action to render the error page and stop, simply use a return statement.
def action
render_404 and return if params[:something].blank?
# here the code that will never be executed
end
ActiveRecord and HTTP 404
Also remember that Rails rescues some ActiveRecord errors, such as the ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound displaying the 404 error page.
It means you don't need to rescue this action yourself
def show
user = User.find(params[:id])
end
User.find raises an ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound when the user doesn't exist. This is a very powerful feature. Look at the following code
def show
user = User.find_by_email(params[:email]) or raise("not found")
# ...
end
You can simplify it by delegating to Rails the check. Simply use the bang version.
def show
user = User.find_by_email!(params[:email])
# ...
end
The newly Selected answer submitted by Steven Soroka is close, but not complete. The test itself hides the fact that this is not returning a true 404 - it's returning a status of 200 - "success". The original answer was closer, but attempted to render the layout as if no failure had occurred. This fixes everything:
render :text => 'Not Found', :status => '404'
Here's a typical test set of mine for something I expect to return 404, using RSpec and Shoulda matchers:
describe "user view" do
before do
get :show, :id => 'nonsense'
end
it { should_not assign_to :user }
it { should respond_with :not_found }
it { should respond_with_content_type :html }
it { should_not render_template :show }
it { should_not render_with_layout }
it { should_not set_the_flash }
end
This healthy paranoia allowed me to spot the content-type mismatch when everything else looked peachy :) I check for all these elements: assigned variables, response code, response content type, template rendered, layout rendered, flash messages.
I'll skip the content type check on applications that are strictly html...sometimes. After all, "a skeptic checks ALL the drawers" :)
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1998-01-20/
FYI: I don't recommend testing for things that are happening in the controller, ie "should_raise". What you care about is the output. My tests above allowed me to try various solutions, and the tests remain the same whether the solution is raising an exception, special rendering, etc.
You could also use the render file:
render file: "#{Rails.root}/public/404.html", layout: false, status: 404
Where you can choose to use the layout or not.
Another option is to use the Exceptions to control it:
raise ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, "Record not found."
The selected answer doesn't work in Rails 3.1+ as the error handler was moved to a middleware (see github issue).
Here's the solution I found which I'm pretty happy with.
In ApplicationController:
unless Rails.application.config.consider_all_requests_local
rescue_from Exception, with: :handle_exception
end
def not_found
raise ActionController::RoutingError.new('Not Found')
end
def handle_exception(exception=nil)
if exception
logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
logger.debug "Exception Message: #{exception.message} \n"
logger.debug "Exception Class: #{exception.class} \n"
logger.debug "Exception Backtrace: \n"
logger.debug exception.backtrace.join("\n")
if [ActionController::RoutingError, ActionController::UnknownController, ActionController::UnknownAction].include?(exception.class)
return render_404
else
return render_500
end
end
end
def render_404
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render template: 'errors/not_found', layout: 'layouts/application', status: 404 }
format.all { render nothing: true, status: 404 }
end
end
def render_500
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render template: 'errors/internal_server_error', layout: 'layouts/application', status: 500 }
format.all { render nothing: true, status: 500}
end
end
and in application.rb:
config.after_initialize do |app|
app.routes.append{ match '*a', :to => 'application#not_found' } unless config.consider_all_requests_local
end
And in my resources (show, edit, update, delete):
#resource = Resource.find(params[:id]) or not_found
This could certainly be improved, but at least, I have different views for not_found and internal_error without overriding core Rails functions.
these will help you...
Application Controller
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
protect_from_forgery
unless Rails.application.config.consider_all_requests_local
rescue_from ActionController::RoutingError, ActionController::UnknownController, ::AbstractController::ActionNotFound, ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, with: lambda { |exception| render_error 404, exception }
end
private
def render_error(status, exception)
Rails.logger.error status.to_s + " " + exception.message.to_s
Rails.logger.error exception.backtrace.join("\n")
respond_to do |format|
format.html { render template: "errors/error_#{status}",status: status }
format.all { render nothing: true, status: status }
end
end
end
Errors controller
class ErrorsController < ApplicationController
def error_404
#not_found_path = params[:not_found]
end
end
views/errors/error_404.html.haml
.site
.services-page
.error-template
%h1
Oops!
%h2
404 Not Found
.error-details
Sorry, an error has occured, Requested page not found!
You tried to access '#{#not_found_path}', which is not a valid page.
.error-actions
%a.button_simple_orange.btn.btn-primary.btn-lg{href: root_path}
%span.glyphicon.glyphicon-home
Take Me Home
routes.rb
get '*unmatched_route', to: 'main#not_found'
main_controller.rb
def not_found
render :file => "#{Rails.root}/public/404.html", :status => 404, :layout => false
end
<%= render file: 'public/404', status: 404, formats: [:html] %>
just add this to the page you want to render to the 404 error page and you are done.
I wanted to throw a 'normal' 404 for any logged in user that isn't an admin, so I ended up writing something like this in Rails 5:
class AdminController < ApplicationController
before_action :blackhole_admin
private
def blackhole_admin
return if current_user.admin?
raise ActionController::RoutingError, 'Not Found'
rescue ActionController::RoutingError
render file: "#{Rails.root}/public/404", layout: false, status: :not_found
end
end
Raising ActionController::RoutingError('not found') has always felt a little bit strange to me - in the case of an unauthenticated user, this error does not reflect reality - the route was found, the user is just not authenticated.
I happened across config.action_dispatch.rescue_responses and I think in some cases this is a more elegant solution to the stated problem:
# application.rb
config.action_dispatch.rescue_responses = {
'UnauthenticatedError' => :not_found
}
# my_controller.rb
before_action :verify_user_authentication
def verify_user_authentication
raise UnauthenticatedError if !user_authenticated?
end
What's nice about this approach is:
It hooks into the existing error handling middleware like a normal ActionController::RoutingError, but you get a more meaningful error message in dev environments
It will correctly set the status to whatever you specify in the rescue_responses hash (in this case 404 - not_found)
You don't have to write a not_found method that needs to be available everywhere.
To test the error handling, you can do something like this:
feature ErrorHandling do
before do
Rails.application.config.consider_all_requests_local = false
Rails.application.config.action_dispatch.show_exceptions = true
end
scenario 'renders not_found template' do
visit '/blah'
expect(page).to have_content "The page you were looking for doesn't exist."
end
end
If you want to handle different 404s in different ways, consider catching them in your controllers. This will allow you to do things like tracking the number of 404s generated by different user groups, have support interact with users to find out what went wrong / what part of the user experience might need tweaking, do A/B testing, etc.
I have here placed the base logic in ApplicationController, but it can also be placed in more specific controllers, to have special logic only for one controller.
The reason I am using an if with ENV['RESCUE_404'], is so I can test the raising of AR::RecordNotFound in isolation. In tests, I can set this ENV var to false, and my rescue_from would not fire. This way I can test the raising separate from the conditional 404 logic.
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, with: :conditional_404_redirect if ENV['RESCUE_404']
private
def conditional_404_redirect
track_404(#current_user)
if #current_user.present?
redirect_to_user_home
else
redirect_to_front
end
end
end