Скачать или смотреть Handling Errors in Azure API Management: Why Returning a 200 Status Code Isn't Always the Best Idea

Learn how to improve Azure API Management by correctly managing error responses instead of returning a 200 status code, ensuring clarity and reliability in your API interactions.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/63609662/ asked by the user 'David' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/452333/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/63628725/ provided by the user 'Kai Walter' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/4947644/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Handling Errors in Azure API Management: Why Returning a 200 Status Code Isn't Always the Best Idea

When working with Azure API Management (APIM), it's essential to ensure that your API behaves predictably, especially when errors occur. A common problem developers encounter is returning a 200 OK status code even when an error arises, such as when the service bus is unavailable or when an incorrect URL is provided. This can result in confusion for the client applications that consume the API, as they may be led to believe that their requests were successful.

The Problem

In your current APIM policy, when an error occurs during the processing of a request, you still return a 200 status code along with the ID of the message sent. This is not ideal, as it doesn't inform the client that an error has occurred. For example, testing with an invalid URL (/transaction/messages2) should alert the client that something went wrong rather than providing a misleading success status.

The Solution: Checking for Errors in Outbound Response

To address this issue, you can enhance the outbound policy section of your APIM configuration to check for errors directly and return an appropriate status code. Here’s how you can achieve this:

Step-by-Step Implementation

Modify the Outbound Section:

You will need to introduce a choose statement in your outbound policy. This allows you to set different status codes based on the outcome of the request handling process. Here’s an example:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Understanding the Code

Error Code Handling:

500 Status Code: If the response status code indicates an application error (i.e., between 400 and 503), it sets the response to a 500 status code with a reason indicating a queue failure.

503 Status Code: If the service is unavailable (status code 503), it properly returns this code to the client and sets a Retry-After header, suggesting the client retry after a specified time.

Fallback Mechanism: The otherwise section ensures that if there are no errors, the API completes normally without altering the response.

Conclusion

Implementing proper error handling in your Azure API Management policies improves the clarity and reliability of your API. By returning the appropriate status codes instead of misleading clients with a 200 OK, you foster better integration and user experience.

Now, your clients can promptly understand when an action has failed and take necessary actions based on the responses provided.

With this approach, you're not only enhancing your API's reliability but also improving the end-user's experience. Next time an error occurs in your service bus, you’ll know exactly how to handle it and communicate effectively to your clients.