Exception handler not honouring Accept header #100

JannieT · 2025-05-09T13:24:59Z

Package version

3.1.1

Describe the bug

Our Adonis Inertia SPA also has some api endpoints. When an api client request has an Accept: application/json header we would like to return a json response. Currently the default exception handler from the official starter kit returns an html response for any 404 route.

We had to modify the exception handler to the following:

  protected statusPages: Record<StatusPageRange, StatusPageRenderer> = {
    '404': (error, { inertia, response, request }) => {
      const accept = request.header('accept') || '';
      if (accept.includes('application/json')) {
        return response.status(404).json({ error: 'Not found' });
      }
      return inertia.render('errors/not_found', { error });
    },
    '500..599': (error, { inertia, response, request }) => {
      const accept = request.header('accept') || '';
      if (accept.includes('application/json')) {
        return response.status(500).json({ error: 'Internal server error' });
      }
      return inertia.render('errors/server_error', { error });
    },
  };

Would this be a better out of the box default for the starter kit?

Happy to put in a pull request if this is the best way to handle both SPA and api requests in the same app.

Reproduction repo

No response

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Julien-R44 · 2025-05-11T22:43:50Z

Indeed, nice catch!

proposed solution looks fine to me, though it feels a bit hacky. Ideally, I think renderStatusPage should be conditional, maybe like this:

export default class HttpExceptionHandler extends ExceptionHandler {
  protected renderStatusPages = (ctx) => {
    if (!app.inProduction) return false

    return ctx.request.accepts('html')
  }

  protected statusPages: Record<StatusPageRange, StatusPageRenderer> = {
    '404': (error, { inertia }) => inertia.render('errors/not_found', { error }),
    '500..599': (error, { inertia }) => inertia.render('errors/server_error', { error }),
  }

  // ...
}

But, even better, I’d naively say that the check like if (ctx.request.accepts('html')) -> renderStatusPage probably belongs inside the Exception Handler itself:
https://github.com/adonisjs/http-server/blob/7.x/src/exception_handler.ts#L355

Because, even in Edge mode, if I have some standard JSON API routes, I won’t get JSON back, I will get an Edge-rendered view

@thetutlage any thoughts ?

thetutlage · 2025-05-13T16:08:01Z

Is it the 404 error page displayed by the router or some custom exception? Because, if it is the E_ROUTE_NOT_FOUND error, then we can have an handle method in there to perform the content negotiation like rest of the errors

JannieT · 2025-05-13T17:39:14Z

@thetutlage it is not the 404 vue page that is returned, but as you expected the E_ROUTE_NOT_FOUND error is referenced in the data-page attribute of the first div in the body

thetutlage transferred this issue from adonisjs/inertia-starter-kit May 14, 2025

thetutlage self-assigned this May 14, 2025

thetutlage added the Type: Enhancement Improving an existing feature label May 14, 2025

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Exception handler not honouring Accept header #100

Exception handler not honouring Accept header #100

Exception handler not honouring Accept header #100

Exception handler not honouring Accept header #100

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Package version

Describe the bug

Reproduction repo