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Spring Boot - Mapping /error to a custom controller by implementing ErrorController

[Last Updated: Mar 8, 2018]

By default Spring Boot maps /error to BasicErrorController which populates model with error attributes and then returns 'error' as the view name to map application defined error pages.

To replace BasicErrorController with our own custom controller which can map to '/error', we need to implement ErrorController interface.

Example

The Controller

@Controller
public class MyAppController {

  @RequestMapping("/")
  public void handleRequest() {
      throw new RuntimeException("test exception");
  }
}

Implementing ErrorController 

@Controller
public class MyCustomErrorController implements ErrorController {

  @RequestMapping("/error")
  @ResponseBody
  public String handleError(HttpServletRequest request) {
      Integer statusCode = (Integer) request.getAttribute("javax.servlet.error.status_code");
      Exception exception = (Exception) request.getAttribute("javax.servlet.error.exception");
      return String.format("<html><body><h2>Error Page</h2><div>Status code: <b>%s</b></div>"
                      + "<div>Exception Message: <b>%s</b></div><body></html>",
              statusCode, exception==null? "N/A": exception.getMessage());
  }

  @Override
  public String getErrorPath() {
      return "/error";
  }
}

Also check out Servlet - Error Handling tutorial to know what low level servlet error attributes can be used in our controller.

Output

To try examples, run spring-boot maven plugin (configured in pom.xml of example project below):

mvn spring-boot:run

We can also run the main method from our IDE.

Accessing unmapped URL:

Example Project

Dependencies and Technologies Used:

  • Spring Boot 2.0.0.RELEASE
    Corresponding Spring Version 5.0.4.RELEASE
  • spring-boot-starter-web : Starter for building web, including RESTful, applications using Spring MVC. Uses Tomcat as the default embedded container.
  • JDK 1.8
  • Maven 3.3.9
Boot Implementing Custom Error Controller Example Select All Download
  • boot-custom-error-controller
    • src
      • main
        • java
          • com
            • logicbig
              • example
                • MyCustomErrorController.java

    See Also