Rails: Catch all exceptions in a rails controller

Is there a way to catch all uncatched exceptions in a rails controller, like this:

def delete
  schedule_id = params[:scheduleId]
  begin
    Schedules.delete(schedule_id)
  rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFoun开发者_运维百科d
    render :json => "record not found"
  rescue ActiveRecord::CatchAll
    #Only comes in here if nothing else catches the error
  end
  render :json => "ok"
end

Thank you

You can also define a rescue_from method.

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  rescue_from ActionController::RoutingError, :with => :error_render_method

  def error_render_method
    respond_to do |type|
      type.xml { render :template => "errors/error_404", :status => 404 }
      type.all  { render :nothing => true, :status => 404 }
    end
    true
  end
end

Depending on what your goal is, you may also want to consider NOT handling exceptions on a per-controller basis. Instead, use something like the exception_handler gem to manage responses to exceptions consistently. As a bonus, this approach will also handle exceptions that occur at the middleware layer, like request parsing or database connection errors that your application does not see. The exception_notifier gem might also be of interest.

begin
  # do something dodgy
rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
  # handle not found error
rescue ActiveRecord::ActiveRecordError
  # handle other ActiveRecord errors
rescue # StandardError
  # handle most other errors
rescue Exception
  # handle everything else
  raise
end

You can catch exceptions by type:

rescue_from ::ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, with: :record_not_found
rescue_from ::NameError, with: :error_occurred
rescue_from ::ActionController::RoutingError, with: :error_occurred
# Don't resuce from Exception as it will resuce from everything as mentioned here "http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10048173/why-is-it-bad-style-to-rescue-exception-e-in-ruby" Thanks for @Thibaut Barrère for mention that
# rescue_from ::Exception, with: :error_occurred 

protected

def record_not_found(exception)
  render json: {error: exception.message}.to_json, status: 404
  return
end

def error_occurred(exception)
  render json: {error: exception.message}.to_json, status: 500
  return
end

rescue with no arguments will rescue any error.

So, you'll want:

def delete
  schedule_id = params[:scheduleId]
  begin
    Schedules.delete(schedule_id)
  rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
    render :json => "record not found"
  rescue
    #Only comes in here if nothing else catches the error
  end
  render :json => "ok"
end

Error handling for a nicer user experience is a very tough thing to pull off correctly.

Here I have provided a fully-complete template to make your life easier. This is better than a gem because its fully customizable to your application.

Note: You can view the latest version of this template at any time on my website: https://westonganger.com/posts/how-to-properly-implement-error-exception-handling-for-your-rails-controllers

Controller

class ApplicationController < ActiveRecord::Base

  def is_admin_path?
    request.path.split("/").reject{|x| x.blank?}.first == 'admin'
  end

  private
  
  def send_error_report(exception, sanitized_status_number)
    val = true

    # if sanitized_status_number == 404
    #   val = false
    # end

    # if exception.class == ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken
    #   val = false
    # end

    return val
  end

  def get_exception_status_number(exception)
    status_number = 500

    error_classes_404 = [
      ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound,
      ActionController::RoutingError,
    ]

    if error_classes_404.include?(exception.class)
      if current_user
        status_number = 500
      else
        status_number = 404
      end
    end

    return status_number.to_i
  end

  def perform_error_redirect(exception, error_message:)
    status_number = get_exception_status_number(exception)

    if send_error_report(exception, status_number)
      ExceptionNotifier.notify_exception(exception, data: {status: status_number})
    end

    ### Log Error
    logger.error exception

    exception.backtrace.each do |line| 
      logger.error line
    end

    if Rails.env.development?
      ### To allow for the our development debugging tools
      raise exception
    end

    ### Handle XHR Requests
    if (request.format.html? && request.xhr?)
      render template: "/errors/#{status_number}.html.erb", status: status_number
      return
    end

    if status_number == 404
      if request.format.html?
        if request.get?
          render template: "/errors/#{status_number}.html.erb", status: status_number
          return
        else
          redirect_to "/#{status_number}"
        end
      else
        head status_number
      end

      return
    end

    ### Determine URL
    if request.referrer.present?
      url = request.referrer
    else
      if current_user && is_admin_path? && request.path.gsub("/","") != admin_root_path.gsub("/","")
        url = admin_root_path
      elsif request.path != "/"
        url = "/"
      else
        if request.format.html?
          if request.get?
            render template: "/errors/500.html.erb", status: 500
          else
            redirect_to "/500"
          end
        else
          head 500
        end

        return
      end
    end

    flash_message = error_message

    ### Handle Redirect Based on Request Format
    if request.format.html?
      redirect_to url, alert: flash_message
    elsif request.format.js?
      flash[:alert] = flash_message
      flash.keep(:alert)

      render js: "window.location = '#{url}';"
    else
      head status_number
    end
  end

  rescue_from Exception do |exception|
    perform_error_redirect(exception, error_message: I18n.t('errors.system.general'))
  end

end

Testing

To test this in your specs you can use the following template:

feature 'Error Handling', type: :controller do

  ### Create anonymous controller, the anonymous controller will inherit from stated controller
  controller(ApplicationController) do
    def raise_500
      raise Errors::InvalidBehaviour.new("foobar")
    end

    def raise_possible_404
      raise ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
    end
  end

  before(:all) do
    @user = User.first

    @error_500 = I18n.t('errors.system.general')
    @error_404 = I18n.t('errors.system.not_found')
  end

  after(:all) do
    Rails.application.reload_routes!
  end

  before :each do
    ### draw routes required for non-CRUD actions
    routes.draw do
      get '/anonymous/raise_500'
      get '/anonymous/raise_possible_404'
    end
  end

  describe "General Errors" do

    context "Request Format: 'html'" do
      scenario 'xhr request' do
        get :raise_500, format: :html, xhr: true
        expect(response).to render_template('errors/500.html.erb')
      end

      scenario 'with referrer' do
        path = "/foobar"

        request.env["HTTP_REFERER"] = path

        get :raise_500
        expect(response).to redirect_to(path)

        post :raise_500
        expect(response).to redirect_to(path)
      end

      scenario 'admin sub page' do
        sign_in @user

        request.path_info = "/admin/foobar"

        get :raise_500
        expect(response).to redirect_to(admin_root_path)

        post :raise_500
        expect(response).to redirect_to(admin_root_path)
      end

      scenario "admin root" do
        sign_in @user

        request.path_info = "/admin"

        get :raise_500
        expect(response).to redirect_to("/")

        post :raise_500
        expect(response).to redirect_to("/")
      end

      scenario 'public sub-page' do
        get :raise_500
        expect(response).to redirect_to("/")

        post :raise_500
        expect(response).to redirect_to("/")
      end

      scenario 'public root' do
        request.path_info = "/"

        get :raise_500
        expect(response).to render_template('errors/500.html.erb')
        expect(response).to have_http_status(500)

        post :raise_500
        expect(response).to redirect_to("/500")
      end

      scenario '404 error' do
        get :raise_possible_404
        expect(response).to render_template('errors/404.html.erb')
        expect(response).to have_http_status(404)

        post :raise_possible_404
        expect(response).to redirect_to('/404')

        sign_in @user

        get :raise_possible_404
        expect(response).to redirect_to('/')

        post :raise_possible_404
        expect(response).to redirect_to('/')
      end
    end

    context "Request Format: 'js'" do
      render_views ### Enable this to actually render views if you need to validate contents
      
      scenario 'xhr request' do
        get :raise_500, format: :js, xhr: true
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '/';")

        post :raise_500, format: :js, xhr: true
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '/';")
      end

      scenario 'with referrer' do
        path = "/foobar"

        request.env["HTTP_REFERER"] = path

        get :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '#{path}';")

        post :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '#{path}';")
      end

      scenario 'admin sub page' do
        sign_in @user

        request.path_info = "/admin/foobar"

        get :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '#{admin_root_path}';")

        post :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '#{admin_root_path}';")
      end

      scenario "admin root" do
        sign_in @user

        request.path_info = "/admin"

        get :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '/';")

        post :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '/';")
      end

      scenario 'public page' do
        get :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '/';")

        post :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '/';")
      end

      scenario 'public root' do
        request.path_info = "/"

        get :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response).to have_http_status(500)

        post :raise_500, format: :js
        expect(response).to have_http_status(500)
      end

      scenario '404 error' do
        get :raise_possible_404, format: :js
        expect(response).to have_http_status(404)

        post :raise_possible_404, format: :js
        expect(response).to have_http_status(404)

        sign_in @user

        get :raise_possible_404, format: :js
        expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '/';")

        post :raise_possible_404, format: :js
        expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
        expect(response.body).to include("window.location = '/';")
      end
    end

    context "Other Request Format" do
      scenario '500 error' do
        get :raise_500, format: :json
        expect(response).to have_http_status(500)

        post :raise_500, format: :json
        expect(response).to have_http_status(500)
      end
      
      scenario '404 error' do
        get :raise_possible_404, format: :json
        expect(response).to have_http_status(404)

        post :raise_possible_404, format: :json
        expect(response).to have_http_status(404)

        sign_in @user

        get :raise_possible_404, format: :json
        expect(response).to have_http_status(500)

        post :raise_possible_404, format: :json
        expect(response).to have_http_status(500)
      end
    end

  end

end

Actually, if you really want to catch everything, you just create your own exceptions app, which let's you customize the behavior that is usually handled by the PublicExceptions middleware: https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-2-stable/actionpack/lib/action_dispatch/middleware/public_exceptions.rb

• location in stack https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-2-stable/railties/lib/rails/application/default_middleware_stack.rb#L98-L99
• configuring https://github.com/rails/rails/blame/4-2-stable/guides/source/configuring.md#L99
  • which can be as easy as using the routes http://blog.plataformatec.com.br/2012/01/my-five-favorite-hidden-features-in-rails-3-2/ or a custom controller (but see https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/17815 for reasons not to use the routes)

A bunch of the other answers share gems that do this for you, but there's really no reason you can't just look at them and do it yourself.

A caveat: make sure you never raise an exception in your exception handler. Otherwise you get an ugly FAILSAFE_RESPONSE https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-2-stable/actionpack/lib/action_dispatch/middleware/show_exceptions.rb#L4-L22

BTW, the behavior in the controller comes from rescuable: https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-2-stable/activesupport/lib/active_support/rescuable.rb#L32-L51