How to return text as json in exception handler

December 9, 2021

I have text in json format and I want send it to the client as json format. I searched around and found that converting it into java object and then returning it is working fine. Can I avoid this process of serialization & deserialization anyhow. I also tried adding @ResponseBody and it did not work.

Current exception handler code:

@ExceptionHandler({CustomRuntimeException.class})
@ResponseBody
public Object handleRuntimeException(CustomRuntimeException exception) {
    String jsonString = exception.getResponseJson();
    ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
    Object response = objectMapper.readValue(jsonString, CustomResponse.class); 
    return response;
}

>Solution :

You can always use ResponseEntity with content type of json, now the text should be properly parsed by the client based on this.

@ExceptionHandler({CustomRuntimeException.class})
@ResponseBody
public Object handleRuntimeException(CustomRuntimeException exception) {
    String jsonString = exception.getResponseJson();
    HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
    headers.setContentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);
    return new ResponseEntity<Object>(responseBody, headers, HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
}