express-error-handler

A graceful error handler for Express applications. This also patches a DOS exploit where users can manually trigger bad request errors that shut down your app.

Quick start:

var express = require('express'),
  errorHandler = require('../error-handler.js'),
  app = express(),
  env = process.env,
  port = env.myapp_port || 3000,
  http = require('http'),
  server;

// Route that triggers a sample error:
app.get('/error', function createError(req,
    res, next) {
  var err = new Error('Sample error');
  err.status = 500;
  next(err);
});

// Create the server object that we can pass
// in to the error handler:
server = http.createServer(app);

// Log the error
app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
  console.log(err);
  next(err);
});

// Respond to errors and conditionally shut
// down the server. Pass in the server object
// so the error handler can shut it down
// gracefully:
app.use( errorHandler({server: server}) );

server.listen(port, function () {
  console.log('Listening on port ' + port);
});

Configuration errorHandler(options)

Here are the parameters you can pass into the errorHandler() middleware:

• @param {object} [options]

• @param {object} [options.handlers] Custom handlers for specific status codes.

• @param {object} [options.views] View files to render in response to specific status codes. Specify a default with options.views.default

• @param {object} [options.static] Static files to send in response to specific status codes. Specify a default with options.static.default.

• @param {number} [options.timeout] Delay between the graceful shutdown attempt and the forced shutdown timeout.

• @param {number} [options.exitStatus] Custom process exit status code.

• @param {object} [options.server] The app server object for graceful shutdowns.

• @param {function} [options.shutdown] An alternative shutdown function if the graceful shutdown fails.

• @param {function} serializer a function to customize the JSON error object. Usage: serializer(err) return errObj

• @param {function} framework Either 'express' (default) or 'restify'.

• @return {function} errorHandler Express error handling middleware.

Examples:

express-error-handler lets you specify custom templates, static pages, or error handlers for your errors. It also does other useful error-handling things that every app should implement, like protect against 4xx error DOS attacks, and graceful shutdown on unrecoverable errors. Here's how you do what you're asking for:

var errorHandler = require('express-error-handler'),
  handler = errorHandler({
    handlers: {
      '404': function err404() {
        // do some custom thing here...
      }
    }
  });

// After all your routes...
// Pass a 404 into next(err)
app.use( errorHandler.httpError(404) );

// Handle all unhandled errors:
app.use( handler );

Or for a static page:

handler = errorHandler({
  static: {
    '404': function err404() {
      // do some custom thing here...
    }
  }
});

Or for a custom view:

handler = errorHandler({
  views: {
    '404': function err404() {
      // do some custom thing here...
    }
  }
});

Or for a custom JSON object:

var errorHandler = require('express-error-handler'),
  handler = errorHandler({
    serializer: function(err) {
      var body = {
        status: err.status,
        message: err.message
      };
      if (createHandler.isClientError(err.status)) {
        ['code', 'name', 'type', 'details'].forEach(function(prop) {
          if (err[prop]) body[prop] = err[prop];
        });
      }
      return body;
    }
  });

More examples are available in the examples folder.

errorHandler.isClientError(status)

Return true if the error status represents a client error that should not trigger a restart.

• @param {number} status
• @return {boolean}

Example

errorHandler.isClientError(404); // returns true
errorHandler.isClientError(500); // returns false

errorHandler.httpError(status, [message])

Take an error status and return a route that sends an error with the appropriate status and message to an error handler via next(err).

• @param {number} status
• @param {string} message
• @return {function} Express route handler

// Define supported routes
app.get( '/foo', handleFoo() );
// 405 for unsupported methods.
app.all( '/foo', createHandler.httpError(405) );

Restify support

Restify error handling works different from Express. To trigger restify mode, you'll need to pass the framework parameter when you create the errorHandler:

var handleError = errorHandler({
  server: server
  framework: 'restify'
});

In restify, next(err) is synonymous with res.send(status, error). This means that you should only use next(err) to report errors to users, and not as a way to aggregate errors to a common error handler. Instead, you can invoke an error handler directly to aggregate your error handling in one place.

There is no error handling middleware. Instead, use server.on('uncaughtException', handleError)

See the examples in ./examples/restify.js

Credit and Thanks

Written by Eric Elliott for the book, "Programming JavaScript Applications" (O'Reilly)

• Nam Nguyen for bringing the Express DOS exploit to my attention.
• Samuel Reed for helpful suggestions.