Managing Web Services › Error Handling

Error Handling

If an error occurs with a Web Services method, a SOAP Fault is returned. The SOAP Fault is the standard means of returning exception information for Web Services.

The Fault message contains standardized <Message> and <Code> elements, but the most informative is the <Detail> element. The <Detail> element contains <ErrorCode> and <ErrorMessage> elements. The <ErrorCode> element returns an enumerated error code specific to either the CA Service Desk Manager or Knowledge Management product. The <ErrorMessage> contains an English string describing the errors. The <ErrorMessage> elements are more suitable for aiding the developer and more appropriate messages should display to users.

For example, the following illustrates a SOAP Fault when a bad parameter is supplied to the CA Service Desk Manager getObjectValues() method:

<soap:Fault>

<faultcode>soap:Client</faultcode> 

<faultstring>Error on fetch with attribute list:persistent_id,first_name,last_nameParamErrorHere<faultstring> 

<detail>

<ErrorCode>1001</ErrorCode> 

<ErrorMessage> Error on fetch with attribute list: persistent_id,first_name,last_nameParamErrorHere </ErrorMessage> 

</detail>
</soap:Fault>

If you are using a client built with Microsoft .NET managed code, a failed Web Services method call raises a "SOAPException" exception. All errors cancel the operation invoked.

In some cases, errors may be written by the servlet container and therefore, display in the servlet container logs. In other cases, error information may be written to CA Service Desk Manager logs. These logs are located in the following subdirectories:

• In the /bopcfg/www/CATALINA_BASE/logs subdirectory of CA Service Desk Manager installation
• In the /log subdirectory of the CA Service Desk Manager installation and to all logs that have the prefix "stdlog".

Note: We recommend that you constantly monitor these logs, as the server may log its own errors without reporting them to the CA Service Desk Manager Web Services.