README.md

API Error Response Formatter

Sends formatted error responses for API's. The format is as follows:

{
	errors: [{
		message: 'A human readable error message',
		code: 'A_MACHINE_PARSABLE_ERROR_CODE',
		level: 'error'
	}]
}

All api errors will follow this format. The message is intended for display to the user, it will change and should not be programmed against. The code is for logging and programitic parsing, it should not be displayed to the user and should be unique across the whole application. The level is for specifying different error levels. Possiable levels are error, warning, message.

Usage

var errors = require('api-errors');

var app = require('express')();
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
	// Do something that can error
	somethingThatErrors(function(err) {
		if (err) {
			// Return error
			errors.e500(res, {
				message: 'Error inserting user',
				code: 'user-insert-error',
			});
			return;
		}
		next();
	});
});

Methods

There are only two methods for now, but we will add more for the standard error codes and messages we send.

format(err[, defaults])

Formats the given error into an array of the proper format. Err must be an object or an array of objects that can be formatted into the above format.

e500(res, err[, defaults])

Sends a 500 level error. Err can be an instance of an error or an object that implements message and code. Defaults is used to set fallback messages if the error object is dynamic and does not implement both message and code.

e400(res, err[, defaults])

Sends a 400 level error. This error is for input validation errors.

e401(res, err[, defaults])

Sends a 401 unauthorized.

e403(res, err[, defaults])

Sends a 403 forbidden.