Mitgliederverwaltung/.plans/open/issue-212-error-handling-inconsistency.md

Issue #212: Inconsistent Error Handling Across Controllers

Problem

Different controllers handle errors differently:

Logging inconsistency:

// Some controllers log errors:
$this->logger->error('Failed to create member', ['exception' => $e, ...]);

// Some controllers don't log at all

Exception handling inconsistency:

// Some controllers catch multiple exception types:
} catch (DoesNotExistException $e) {
    return new JSONResponse(['error' => 'Not found'], 404);
} catch (\Exception $e) {
    return new JSONResponse(['error' => 'Server error'], 500);
}

// Some controllers use generic catches:
} catch (Exception $e) { ... }

Error message language:

return new JSONResponse(['error' => 'Mitglied nicht gefunden'], 404);  // German
return new JSONResponse(['error' => 'Member not found'], 404);          // English

Impact

• Inconsistent user experience
• Difficult to debug production issues
• Potential information leakage (stack traces in logs)
• Mixed language in API responses

Solution

1. Create a base controller with standardized error handling:

   abstract class BaseApiController extends ApiController {
       protected function handleNotFound(DoesNotExistException $e): JSONResponse {
           $this->logger->warning('Resource not found', ['exception' => $e]);
           return $this->error('Resource not found', 404);
       }
   
       protected function handleError(\Exception $e, string $action): JSONResponse {
           $this->logger->error("$action failed", ['exception' => $e]);
           return $this->error('An error occurred', 500);
       }
   }
   

2. Define consistent error messages in one place (enum or constants)

3. Ensure all controllers extend the base class

Tasks

• Create BaseApiController with standardized error methods
• Define ErrorMessages enum with all error strings
• Update all controllers to extend BaseApiController
• Ensure consistent logging (all errors logged, exceptions include context)
• Standardize on German or bilingual error messages
• Add tests for error handling behavior

Labels

• bug
• backend
• priority:medium