Exception Handling in MVC

public ActionResult Index()
{
    int a = 1;
    int b = 0;
    int c = 0;
    try
    {
        c = a / b; // This line would cause an exception.
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return View("Error");
    }
    finally
    {
        // Optional code to execute after try block (e.g., cleanup)
    }
    return View();
}

public ActionResult Index()
{
    int a = 1;
    int b = 0;
    int c = 0;
    c = a / b; // This line would cause an exception.
    return View();
}

protected override void OnException(ExceptionContext filterContext)
{
    string action = filterContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString();
    Exception e = filterContext.Exception;
    filterContext.ExceptionHandled = true;
    filterContext.Result = new ViewResult()
    {
        ViewName = "Error"
    };
}

string action = filterContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString();

There is a problem with this approach that we cannot reuse the exception handling logic across multiple controllers. That is where global error handling is useful.

Using HandleError Attribute

This is a simple way to handle exceptions in MVC. Remove the OnException implementation from the previous code. Use the following procedure to do that.

Step 1. Add <customErrors mode="On" ></customErrors> in web.config under <system.web>.

Step 2. Decorate the action with [HandleError] as,

[HandleError]
public ActionResult Index()
{
    int a = 1;
    int b = 0;
    int c = 0;
    c = a / b; // This line will cause an exception.
    return View();
}

We can handle a different exception with a different view with [HandleError] as in the following.

[HandleError]
[HandleError(ExceptionType = typeof(DivideByZeroException), View = "Error1")]
[HandleError(ExceptionType = typeof(ArgumentOutOfRangeException), View = "Error2")]
public ActionResult Index()
{
    int a = 1;
    int b = 0;
    int c = 0;
    c = a / b; // This would cause an exception.
    return View();
}

Here we should place a specific HandleError at the bottom if we reverse the order of the HandleError attribute then the Error. cshtml will always be displayed.

In the same way, we can decorate our controller with HandleError. This would handle the exception generated from all the actions from a specific controller.

Limitations

• Does not support logging exceptions.
• Doesn't catch HTTP exceptions other than 500.
• Doesn't catch exceptions that are raised outside controllers.
• Returns an error view even for exceptions raised in AJAX calls.

Setting a global exception-handling filter

For this, we need to ensure that HandleErrorAttribute is added in RegisterGlobalFilters of the FilterConfig file of App_start and registered in Application_Start. No need to decorate our action and controller with [HandleError].

Extending HandleErrorAttribute

We can also create our own Exception Handler by inheriting from HandleErrorAttribute as in the following.

public class MyExceptionHandler : HandleErrorAttribute
{
    public override void OnException(ExceptionContext filterContext)
    {
        if (filterContext.ExceptionHandled || filterContext.HttpContext.IsCustomErrorEnabled)
        {
            return;
        }

        Exception e = filterContext.Exception;
        filterContext.ExceptionHandled = true;
        filterContext.Result = new ViewResult()
        {
            ViewName = "Error2"
        };
    }
}

We need to set ExceptionHandled = true for the ExceptionContext object. We can handle the exception generated from all the actions from a specific controller. We can also get the action name from ExceptionContext as in the following.

string action = filterContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString();

Now we can decorate our action/controller with [MyExceptionHandler] to use this.

[MyExceptionHandler]
public ActionResult Index()
{
    int a = 1;
    int b = 0;
    int c = 0;
    
    // This operation would cause an exception (division by zero).
    c = a / b;
    
    return View();
}