How do you implement a custom error page in Spring Boot?

Table of Contents

Introduction

In a production environment, having custom error pages for HTTP errors like 404 (Not Found), 500 (Internal Server Error), or other server-side issues greatly improves the user experience. By default, Spring Boot provides basic error pages, but you may want to customize these pages to suit your application's design and provide more user-friendly messages.

In this guide, we will walk through how to implement a custom error page in Spring Boot, covering different methods of handling errors, including ErrorController implementation, HTML error pages, and more.

Methods to Implement Custom Error Pages in Spring Boot

1. Using **ErrorController** Interface

Spring Boot provides the ErrorController interface, which allows you to define your own controller to handle errors globally and provide custom error responses. This is the most common approach for adding custom error pages in Spring Boot.

a. Creating a Custom **ErrorController**

To implement a custom error page, you need to create a class that implements the ErrorController interface and override the getErrorPath() method. In this class, you can handle various error codes like 404 or 500 and return a custom view or message.

Example: Custom ErrorController

In this example, we created a CustomErrorController that listens to the /error path and returns a view named error.html. When an error occurs (e.g., 404 or 500), the request will be routed to this controller.

b. Creating Custom Error Pages

You can create custom error pages in your resources/templates folder using Thymeleaf or any other template engine.

For example, create an **error.html** page for a custom error response:

This page will be displayed whenever a general error occurs in the application.

2. Customizing Specific HTTP Error Codes

Spring Boot allows you to handle specific HTTP error codes by defining custom pages for errors like 404, 403, or 500.

a. 404 Error Page

To customize the 404 error page, you can follow a similar approach as the generic error page but specifically target the 404 HTTP status code.

Example: Custom 404.html Page

This file should be placed in src/main/resources/templates/404.html if you're using Thymeleaf or any template engine. When a 404 error occurs, this page will be displayed.

b. 500 Error Page

Similarly, you can create a custom error page for a 500 Internal Server Error by creating a 500.html file.

Example: Custom 500.html Page

This file should be placed in src/main/resources/templates/500.html or can be customized as needed.

3. Using **application.properties** for Error Page Configuration

You can configure some basic error handling options in your **application.properties** file, like the path for custom error pages, or even enable detailed error messages for development.

Example: Configuring Error Pages in application.properties

You can also define custom pages using **error.whitelabel.enabled** and **error.path** if you need a more generalized configuration.

4. Using **@ResponseStatus** for Specific Exception Handling

For fine-grained control over error responses, Spring Boot allows you to use the @ResponseStatus annotation to map specific exceptions to certain HTTP status codes. This allows you to customize error handling behavior for different types of errors.

Example: Handling a Custom Exception

Now, whenever the ResourceNotFoundException is thrown, Spring Boot will automatically return a 404 status code along with a custom error message.

5. Handling Errors in the Controller

You can also handle errors directly in a controller method using @ExceptionHandler to catch exceptions and return custom error pages or messages.

Example: Using @ExceptionHandler for Custom Error Pages

In this case, when the ResourceNotFoundException is thrown, the controller will return the custom 404.html page with an error message.

Conclusion

Creating custom error pages in Spring Boot helps improve the user experience by providing friendly error messages when things go wrong. You can implement custom error pages in various ways, including:

  1. Using the **ErrorController** interface for general error handling.
  2. Creating specific HTML pages for errors like 404 and 500.
  3. Configuring custom error pages through application.properties.
  4. Using **@ExceptionHandler** for specific exception handling.

With these techniques, you can ensure that users are presented with a consistent and informative interface, even when things don't go as expected. By customizing error handling and pages, your Spring Boot application becomes more robust and user-friendly.

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