Error handling in Express using Axios for API call

Question

I am trying to set up a basic express app to get some API data using axios. I want to do things the right way but I am a bit lost with error handling. Ideally, if there is an error I want to communicate it to users which I could do if the API call was within it the route. But how do you do it if it's a separate function?

axios call function using async:

const getForm = async () => {
    try {
        const config = {
            method: 'get',
            url: 'https://api.something.org/niceform'
            }
        }
        const response = await axios(config)
        return response
    } catch (error) {
        return error.message
    }
}

express route:

app.get('/niceform', async (req, res) => {
    try {
        const data = await getForm()
        res.send(data)
    } catch (error) {
        ???
    }
})

If I understand it correctly the getForm() function will return either the response or the error and then the route will send whatever comes back. But then what does the route's catch block do and how should I use it?

Is this setup considered to be a good practice? Any advice would be appreciated, I am still learning.

Wasbeer · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-27T19:37:46.820

The catch block can be removed from the getForm function. An error will be caught anyways in the get route.

const getForm = async () => {
    const config = {
        method: 'get',
        url: 'https://api.something.org/niceform'
    };

    const response = await axios(config);

    return response;
}

Or the error can be caught inside getForm, in order to do something in that catch block, and be thrown:

const getForm = async () => {
    const config = {
        method: 'get',
        url: 'https://api.something.org/niceform'
    };

    try {
        const response = await axios(config);
        return response;
    } catch (err) {
        // log the error
        // add extra information to the error
        // else
        // (see the attached answer)
        throw err;
    }
}

Consequently, in the catch block in the get route, an error can be responded:

app.get('/niceform', async (req, res) => {
    try {
        const data = await getForm();
        res.send(data);
    } catch (error) {
        res.error(error);
    }
})

Reference:

Perfect, thanks so much for the explanation, this makes complete sense! :) — thenubian, Jan 27 '20 at 20:03

Error handling in Express using Axios for API call

1 Answers1