Spring Webflux : Webclient : Get body on error

Question

I am using the webclient from spring webflux, like this :

WebClient.create()
            .post()
            .uri(url)
            .syncBody(body)
            .a         


        

Answer 1

I prefer to use the methods provided by the ClientResponse to handle http errors and throw exceptions:

WebClient.create()
         .post()
         .uri( url )
         .body( bodyObject == null ? null : BodyInserters.fromValue( bodyObject ) )
         .accept( MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON )
         .headers( headers )
         .exchange()
         .flatMap( clientResponse -> {
             //Error handling
             if ( clientResponse.statusCode().isError() ) { // or clientResponse.statusCode().value() >= 400
                 return clientResponse.createException().flatMap( Mono::error );
             }
             return clientResponse.bodyToMono( clazz )
         } )
         //You can do your checks: doOnError (..), onErrorReturn (..) ...
         ...

In fact, it's the same logic used in the DefaultResponseSpec of DefaultWebClient to handle errors. The DefaultResponseSpec is an implementation of ResponseSpec that we would have if we made a retrieve() instead of exchange().

Answer 2

I do something like this:

Mono<ClientResponse> responseMono = requestSpec.exchange()
            .doOnNext(response -> {
                HttpStatus httpStatus = response.statusCode();
                if (httpStatus.is4xxClientError() || httpStatus.is5xxServerError()) {
                    throw new WebClientException(
                            "ClientResponse has erroneous status code: " + httpStatus.value() +
                                    " " + httpStatus.getReasonPhrase());
                }
            });

and then:

responseMono.subscribe(v -> { }, ex -> processError(ex));

Answer 3

Don't we have onStatus()?

    public Mono<Void> cancel(SomeDTO requestDto) {
        return webClient.post().uri(SOME_URL)
                .body(fromObject(requestDto))
                .header("API_KEY", properties.getApiKey())
                .retrieve()
                .onStatus(HttpStatus::isError, response -> {
                    logTraceResponse(log, response);
                    return Mono.error(new IllegalStateException(
                            String.format("Failed! %s", requestDto.getCartId())
                    ));
                })
                .bodyToMono(Void.class)
                .timeout(timeout);
    }

And:

    public static void logTraceResponse(Logger log, ClientResponse response) {
        if (log.isTraceEnabled()) {
            log.trace("Response status: {}", response.statusCode());
            log.trace("Response headers: {}", response.headers().asHttpHeaders());
            response.bodyToMono(String.class)
                    .publishOn(Schedulers.elastic())
                    .subscribe(body -> log.trace("Response body: {}", body));
        }
    }

Answer 4

You could also do this

return webClient.getWebClient()
 .post()
 .uri("/api/Card")
 .body(BodyInserters.fromObject(cardObject))
 .exchange()
 .flatMap(clientResponse -> {
     if (clientResponse.statusCode().is5xxServerError()) {
        clientResponse.body((clientHttpResponse, context) -> {
           return clientHttpResponse.getBody();
        });
     return clientResponse.bodyToMono(String.class);
   }
   else
     return clientResponse.bodyToMono(String.class);
});

Read this article for more examples link, I found it to be helpful when I experienced a similar problem with error handling

Answer 5

We have finally understood what is happening : By default the Netty's httpclient (HttpClientRequest) is configured to fail on server error (response 5XX) and not on client error (4XX), this is why it was always emitting an exception.

What we have done is extend AbstractClientHttpRequest and ClientHttpConnector to configure the httpclient behave the way the want and when we are invoking the WebClient we use our custom ClientHttpConnector :

 WebClient.builder().clientConnector(new CommonsReactorClientHttpConnector()).build();

Answer 6

I got the error body by doing like this:

webClient
...
.retrieve()    
.onStatus(HttpStatus::isError, response -> response.bodyToMono(String.class) // error body as String or other class
                                                   .flatMap(error -> Mono.error(new RuntimeException(error)))) // throw a functional exception
.bodyToMono(MyResponseType.class)
.block();