Error Details without Stack Trace

Question

In my MVC WebApi service, when an exception is thrown, it is handled by a filter:

public class GlobalExceptionFilter : ExceptionFilterAttribute {
    public override void OnException(HttpActionExecutedContext context) {
        context.Response = context.Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, 
                                                               "Bad Request", 
                                                               context.Exception);
    } 
}

This HTTP response generated by this filter is dependent on config.IncludeErrorDetailPolicy configuration.

If I set config.IncludeErrorDetailPolicy to IncludeErrorDetailPolicy.Always, all the details are serialized into the HTTP response (Message, ExceptionMessage, ExceptionType, and StackTrace).

If I set config.IncludeErrorDetailPolicy to IncludeErrorDetailPolicy.Never, only the Message is included.

However, I want to include the Message, ExceptionMessage, and ExceptionType in the HTTP response but not the StackTrace; how do I exclude only the StackTrace? Or should I just concatenate the needed details into the Message field?

To add some context to my question, the client needs these exception details to handle special cases...but never the stack trace.

Answer 1

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Leon. Your link inspired my solution below. It keeps the functionality of the CreateErrorResponse method and appends the ExceptionMessage and ExceptionType attributes.

public class GlobalExceptionFilter : ExceptionFilterAttribute {
    public override void OnException(HttpActionExecutedContext context) {
        context.Response = context.Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, 
                                                               "Bad Request", 
                                                               context.Exception);
            var httpError = (HttpError)((ObjectContent<HttpError>)context.Response.Content).Value;
            if (!httpError.ContainsKey("ExceptionType"))
                httpError.Add("ExceptionType", context.Exception.GetType().FullName);
            if (!httpError.ContainsKey("ExceptionMessage"))
                httpError.Add("ExceptionMessage", context.Exception.Message);
    } 
}