How to properly send an HTTP message to the client

Question

I\'m working on a RESTful web service in Java. I need a good way to send error messages to the client if something\'s wrong.

According to the Javadoc, HttpServlet

Answer 1

It's not really clear what you are trying to accomplish. My first thought was the sendError but you say that does not do what you want... have you looked at creating a set of "error responses", meaning specific xml or JSON content (or whatever you are using as a transfer language) that contains the error message or code and any other useful information?

I did something like that for Spring-mvc based RESTful services a while back and it worked well but you have to pretty much catch and handle every exception to keep the client from getting a generic 500 message or something. The Spring Exception Resolvers worked well for that.

Hope this helps... if not, maybe a little more clarity on what you are trying to accomplish. Sorry if I am being dense and missing something obvious.