Spring ExceptionHandlerController for catching errors is not working

Question

I am trying to create a controller so that when a user goes to a non-existing URL, he/she will be mapped to a custom error page "error.jsp".

Currently, my Exception Handler Controller looks as followed:

@ControllerAdvice 
public class ExceptionHandlerController {
    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ExceptionHandlerController.class);

    @ExceptionHandler(value = {Exception.class, RuntimeException.class})
    public String defaultErrorHandler(Exception e) {
        logger.error("Unhandled exception: ", e);
        return "error";
    }

    @ExceptionHandler(NoHandlerFoundException.class)
    public String handle(Exception e) {
        logger.error("No handler found!", e);
        return "error";
    }
}

However, when I run my web app and visit a nonexisting URL, I get redirected to the default browser page saying '404 this page cannot be page.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions as to why this is not working?

Answer 1

From the javaDoc of NoHandlerFoundException

By default when the DispatcherServlet can't find a handler for a request it sends a 404 response. However if its property "throwExceptionIfNoHandlerFound" is set to true this exception is raised and may be handled with a configured HandlerExceptionResolver.

To solve this, You need to make sure you did these 2 things .

1. Creating SimpleMappingExceptionResolver and registering as a bean

   @Bean HandlerExceptionResolver customExceptionResolver () { SimpleMappingExceptionResolver s = new SimpleMappingExceptionResolver(); Properties p = new Properties(); //mapping spring internal error NoHandlerFoundException to a view name. p.setProperty(NoHandlerFoundException.class.getName(), "error-page"); s.setExceptionMappings(p); //uncomment following line if we want to send code other than default 200 //s.addStatusCode("error-page", HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND.value());

     //This resolver will be processed before default ones s.setOrder(Ordered.HIGHEST_PRECEDENCE); return s; 

   }

---

2. Set setThrowExceptionIfNoHandlerFound as true in your dispatcherServlet.

p

public class AppInitializer extends
        AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer {

  ....
  ......

  @Override
  protected FrameworkServlet createDispatcherServlet (WebApplicationContext wac) {
      DispatcherServlet ds = new DispatcherServlet(wac);
      //setting this flag to true will throw NoHandlerFoundException instead of 404 page
      ds.setThrowExceptionIfNoHandlerFound(true);
      return ds;
  }

}

Refer complete example here .