http - REST response code for invalid data - Stack Overflow

http - REST response code for invalid data - Stack Overflow
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REST response code for invalid data
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What response code should be passed to client in case of following scenarios?
Invalid data passed while user registration like wrong email format
User name/ Email is already exists
I chose 403. I also found following that I feel can be used.
Wikipedia:
412 Precondition Failed :
The server does not meet one of the preconditions that the requester
put on the request
Suggest code if I should use other than 403.
http
rest
jax-rs
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edited
Mar 5 '14 at 23:51
Kowser
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May 25 '11 at 11:03
Amit Patel
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Possible duplicate:
stackoverflow.com/questions/3050518/…
Genjo
Aug 29 at 10:34
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4 Answers
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400 is the best choice in both cases. If you want to further clarify the error you can either change the Reason Phrase or include a body to explain the error.
412 - Precondition failed is used for conditional requests when using last-modified date and ETags.
403 - Forbidden is used when the server wishes to prevent access to a resource.
The only other choice that is possible is 422 - Unprocessable entity.
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answered
May 25 '11 at 11:32
Darrel Miller
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while it is often used in this context, 403 is not limited to acces control, since rfc2616-10.4.4 says: "The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it. [...] if the server wishes to make public why the request has not been fulfilled, it SHOULD describe the reason for the refusal in the entity." The reason can be invalid data. However, 422 is more applicable here.
Yannick Loiseau
May 25 '11 at 14:19
Let's not get caught up in textual criticism. See for example
trac.tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/ticket/294
which attempts to clarify that 403 is and was always about authorization.
fumanchu
May 25 '11 at 14:44
@fumanchu Nice catch. A link to a change request that is only 7 hours old :-)
Darrel Miller
May 25 '11 at 15:31
@fumanchu It means 403 should be return in case of user don't have permission to access requested resource. But I think 401 Unauthorized is more appropriate of accessing resource on which user doesn't have permission.
Amit Patel
May 26 '11 at 4:45
@fumanchu It is also stated that "Authorization will not help and the request SHOULD NOT be repeated." for 403. What I understand here is is even you have special privileges/permission, you cannot access resource.
Amit Patel
May 26 '11 at 4:58
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I would recommend 422. It's not part of the main HTTP spec, but it is defined by a public standard (WebDAV) and it should be treated by browsers the same as any other 4xx status code.
From
RFC 4918
The 422 (Unprocessable Entity) status code means the server understands the content type of the request entity (hence a 415(Unsupported Media Type) status code is inappropriate), and the syntax of the request entity is correct (thus a 400 (Bad Request) status code is inappropriate) but was unable to process the contained instructions. For example, this error condition may occur if an XML request body contains well-formed (i.e., syntactically correct), but semantically erroneous, XML instructions.
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answered
Feb 3 '12 at 16:42
Mike Deck
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Note that the quoted text states that 422 is applicable when the request entity is syntactically well-formed, but semantically erroneous. If the request entity is garbled, 400 is the appropriate response.
Matty K
Aug 20 '12 at 1:59
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up vote
53
down vote
If the request could not be correctly parsed (including the request entity/body) the appropriate response is
400 Bad Request
].
RFC 4918
states that
422 Unprocessable Entity
is applicable when the request entity is syntactically well-formed, but semantically erroneous. So if the request entity is garbled (like a bad email format) use 400; but if it just doesn't make sense (like
@example.com
) use 422.
If the issue is that, as stated in the question, user name/email already exists, you could use
409 Conflict
] with a description of the conflict, and a hint about how to fix it (in this case, "pick a different user name/email"). However in the spec as written,
403 Forbidden
] can also be used in this case, arguments about HTTP Authorization notwithstanding.
412 Precondition Failed
] is used when a precondition request header (e.g.
If-Match
) that was
supplied by the client
evaluates to false. That is, the client requested something and supplied preconditions, knowing full well that those preconditions might fail. 412 should never be sprung on the client out of the blue, and shouldn't be related to the request entity
per se
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answered
Aug 20 '12 at 2:29
Matty K
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I should note the updated HTTP/1.1 RFCs: 400 Bad Request, 409 Conflict, 403 Forbidden etc. live in
tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231
; 412 Precondition Failed is in
tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7232#section-4.2
Matty K
Jul 3 '14 at 3:49
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up vote
11
down vote
It is amusing to return
418 I'm a teapot
to requests that are obviously crafted or malicious and "can't happen", such as failing CSRF check or missing request properties.
2.3.2 418 I'm a teapot
Any attempt to brew coffee with a teapot should result in the error
code "418 I'm a teapot". The resulting entity body MAY be short and
stout.
To keep it reasonably serious, I restrict usage of funny error codes to RESTful endpoints that are not directly exposed to the user.
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answered
Oct 16 '15 at 8:16
doug65536
3,202
17
32
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