Question

I was hoping to implement a single “ExceptionController” to handle exceptions that are thrown in execution of my other controllers’ methods. I hadn’t specified any HandlerExceptionResolver in my application context so according to the API documentation the AnnotationMethodHandlerExceptionResolver should be started. I verified it as such in the source. So why doesn’t the following work?

@Controller
public class ExceptionController {

  @ExceptionHandler(NullPointerException.class)
  public ModelAndView handleNullPointerException(NullPointerException ex) {
    // Do some stuff
    log.error(logging stuff)
    return myModelAndView;
  }
}

@Controller
public class AnotherController {

  @RequestMapping(value="/nullpointerpath")
  public String throwNullPointer() {
    throw new NullPointerException();
  }
}

I see in the debug logs that the three default exception handlers are asked for handling of the exception, but nothing is done and I see “DispatcherServlet – Could not complete request”. Followed by the user being displayed the stacktrace and a 500 Internal error.

Answer 1

Make sure your Exception handler is returning a view that exists/maps to a handler.