Spring boot PathVariable not passed getting 404 URL doesn't exists

Question

While creating a GET endpoint in a Spring web application I have a path variable(annotated with @PathVariable) passed to my API.

If I don't pass any value on path, the controller responds with HTTP 404 status.

Endpoint: http://localhost:8080/observability-core/v1/systems/

If I pass a value it responds as expected (e.g http://localhost:8080/observability-core/v1/systems/123)

If the path variable is missing on the request, I want to throw HTTP 400 Bad Request to indicate something like is not passed.

PS: - when I hit request with above url I am not getting any logs implying no request reached the application. That could mean endpoint doesn't exists, which is misleading. How do I customise the error response in this case?

Default response from Spring controller endpoint:

{
    "timestamp": "2024-01-04T06:48:18.584+00:00",
    "status": 404,
    "error": "Not Found",
    "path": "/observability-core/v1/systems/"
}

You are getting this from spring itself, for bad request it should be a valid request first of all , what this error says is , the API you are invoking itself could not be found by Spring , hence you are getting 404 not found from dispatcher servlet — Harsh
– Harsh, Commented Jan 4, 2024 at 7:23
API consumer must know what endpoint he/she is consuming , for Bad request post hitting the correct end point, you must utilize spring annotations such as @Validated & @Valid — Harsh
– Harsh, Commented Jan 4, 2024 at 7:24

Tamas Csizmadia · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-04 07:46:51Z

4

My proposed solution:

Specify the path with and without the parameter: @GetMapping(value = { "/path", "/path/{param}" })
Mark the Path variable as required = false (@PathVariable(required = false) String param
handle the situation when parameter is missing and respond as required (with HTTP Status 400 in your case)

Minimalistic Example

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/foo")
public class FooController {

    @GetMapping(value = { "/{firstParam}", "/" })
    public ResponseEntity<String> getFoo(@PathVariable(required = false) String firstParam) {
        if (null == firstParam) {
            return ResponseEntity.badRequest().body("The first param is required");
        }
        return ResponseEntity.ok("The first param is: " + firstParam);
    }
}

A Test case:

@SpringBootTest
@AutoConfigureMockMvc
class FooControllerTest {

    @Autowired
    private MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Test
    void whenParameterIsPassesShouldReturnOk() throws Exception {
        mockMvc.perform(MockMvcRequestBuilders.get("/foo/param"))
                .andExpect(status().isOk())
                .andExpect(content().string("The first param is: param"));
    }

    @Test
    void whenParameterIsNotPassedShouldReturnBadRequest() throws Exception {
        mockMvc.perform(MockMvcRequestBuilders.get("/foo/"))
                .andExpect(status().isBadRequest())
                .andExpect(content().string("The first param is required"));
    }

}

answered Jan 4, 2024 at 7:46

Tamas Csizmadia

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2 Comments

Nitin Gangwar Over a year ago

Thanks @Tamas Csizmadia. your solution seems more logical and solves my issue. Still have one doubt How can I generalize this behaviour for all of endpoints within my application having pathvariables. Can we think of any general handler to all this validations.

Tamas Csizmadia Over a year ago

Dear @NitinGangwar - to be honest I rather handle these cases in a Service component and keep the Controllers as thin as possible. You can properly plan and design your Service classes with composition to have a common logic to handle parameters passed to your Services.

Benkerroum Mohamed · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-06 01:45:11Z

0

You can get it done by following this approach.

 @RequestMapping("/observability-core/v1/systems")
 public class YourController {

    @GetMapping("/{id}")
    public ResponseEntity<String> getSystemDetails(@PathVariable(required = false) String id) {
        if (id == null) {
            // Handle the case where the path variable is not provided
            return new ResponseEntity<>("ID not provided in the request.", HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
        }

        // Your existing logic when the ID is provided
        return new ResponseEntity<>("System details for ID: " + id, HttpStatus.OK);
    }

edited Jan 6, 2024 at 1:45

Benkerroum Mohamed

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answered Jan 4, 2024 at 7:53

Arslan aka

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2 Comments

Tamas Csizmadia Over a year ago

If you don't specify the mapping without the variable notation, it will still respond with HTTP 404 (which is the expected behaviour from Spring's side, IMHO)

Nitin Gangwar Over a year ago

Hey Arslan, In this case request will never reach endpoint as spring treats it as a different url. Below tamas solution has extra check of empty url using that it works.

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