Error Handling › Standardize Error Codes

Standardize Error Codes

In several of the error handling techniques, an error code is used to communicate the server error to the client. This error code is directly related to exit states.

Maintaining this relationship is an important consideration to the assignment and management of the error codes. You should establish a naming convention for both exit states and error codes to enable this association.

An effective approach is to develop a code that will prefix all exit state names and represent the error code for that exit state.

The following table provides examples of a five-character code:

In this example, the error code is made up of two parts:

• The first two characters (AA) contain a unique code assigned to every business system.
• This code will ensure that exit state names and error codes are not duplicated.
• The last three characters (001, 002, 003) are a numeric sequence number.

  The business system is the boundary for this sequence number. Every time a new exit state is added to the business system the last number assigned is incremented by one and used to name the new exit state.