Throwing an exception in a custom formatter doesn't set the http status as expected

[HassanAzzam]

I'm using the tableExport API, and currently trying to conditionally enable a PDF formatter on specific resource types(as it requires prerequisites such as an HTML template .. etc), hence, I throw an exception inside the formatter whenever an unsupported resource type is requested to be exported.

Expected Behavior

To have the exception message in the queueing response alongside the status code(4xx, maybe 422), something like this:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "tableExport",
    "id": "011f99aa-cc41-4c5b-bbb0-d3478aa9d8ac",
    "attributes": {
      ...
      "result": {
		...
        "recordCount": null,
        "httpStatus": 422,
        "url": null,
        "message": "Type [xxx] is not PDF exportable."
      }
    }
  }
}

Current Behavior

I get everything as expected unless for the status code, returning 200.

{
  "data": {
    "type": "tableExport",
    "id": "011f99aa-cc41-4c5b-bbb0-d3478aa9d8ac",
    "attributes": {
      ...
      "result": {
		...
        "recordCount": null,
        "httpStatus": 200,
        "url": null,
        "message": "Type [xxx] is not PDF exportable."
      }
    }
  }
}

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a custom formatter for table export api.
2. Throw an error inside the formatter.
3. Try to trigger the formatter through table export api.

Context

Trying to inspect the status of the requested export.
Async API
TableExport API

Your Environment

• Elide version used: 7.1.2
• Environment name and version (Java 1.8.0_152): openjdk 17.0.9 2023-10-17
• Operating System and version: MacOS 10.15
• Spring boot: 3.2.5

[justin-tay]

This looks like it is currently by design, similar to GraphQL where queries always return HTTP status code 200. If message is set an error has occurred.

elide/elide-async/src/main/java/com/yahoo/elide/async/operation/TableExportOperation.java

Lines 143 to 147 in e72bff8

	// Follows same flow as GraphQL. The query may result in failure but request was successfully processed.
	exportResult.setHttpStatus(200);
	exportResult.setCompletedOn(new Date());
	elide.getTransactionRegistry().removeRunningTransaction(requestId);
	elide.getAuditLogger().clear();

[HassanAzzam]

Any recommendations to get around this? Or at least to differentiate between accepted and rejected requests?

[justin-tay]

If the request is accepted the message should be null and if it's rejected then message will be present?