Home page > Camis W24 > GraphQL and Errors

What I learned

If there is a server-side error, there are two responses GraphQL can use: a 200 OK error, and a 500 server error. 200 OK errors provide partial data, while 500 errors do not.

An example of a 500 error:

      
    {
      "errors": [
        {
          "message": "This is the error message."
        }
      ]
    }
      
    

An example of a 200 OK error:

      
    {
      "errors": [
        {
          "message": "This is the error message.",
          "locations": [
            {
              "line": 3,
              "column": 5
            }
          ],
          "path": [
            "whereTheErrorOccurred"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "data": {
        "partialDataReturned": []
      }
    }
      
    

Note how the information is more complex in a 200 OK error. Since the type of error I had was simple and I didn't want to return any partial data to the user, the 500 error made more sense in this case.

Additional Resources

• Error Handling in GraphQL With Hot Chocolate
  • A useful resource that explains why GraphQL provides only specific types of responses
• GraphQL Non-Nullability and Error Handling (YouTube)
  • Demonstrates the usefulness of partial data and declaring non-nullable fields
• GraphQL Error Handling is Painful (YouTube):
  • Explains why GraphQL can be a challenge when it comes to errors
  • Provides a few solutions to the types of error responses GraphQL provides