REST API error handling

This page describes the most common types of errors (exceptions) that may occur when issuing API requests.

A server may respond to a REST API request with an HTTP response message informing about the failure of the API call. For example, if you send a simple request such as:

https://demopublic.magnolia-cms.com/.rest/delivery/tours/v1/magnolia-travels/A-Taste-of-Asia

the sever responds with the following message in the body of the response:

{
	"error": {
		"code": "pathNotFound",
		"message": "/magnolia-travels/A-Taste-of-Asia"
	}
}

The message informs the receiver about an exception that occurred while processing the request: the requested resource path was not found on the server.

Exception types

The tables below describe several common types of exceptions, their HTTP status codes and error codes. For exceptions not mentioned below, the status code is 500 and the error code is unknown.

JAX-RS exceptions

Repository exceptions

Exception response format

The format of an exception response to be returned is determined as follows:

• The response is displayed in the media type requested (see IANA's Media Types).
• If the requested media type is not supported, JSON is returned as fallback.

• If no resource method is matched, JSON is returned as fallback.

  The nodes and properties endpoints no longer always return exceptions in plain text.