How to configure Spring's RestTemplate to return null when HTTP status of 404 is returned

Question

I am calling a REST service that returns XML, and using Jaxb2Marshaller to marshal my classes (e.g. Foo, Bar, etc). So my client code looks like so:

    HashMap<String, String> vars = new HashMap<String, String>();     vars.put("id", "123");      String url = "http://example.com/foo/{id}";      Foo foo = restTemplate.getForObject(url, Foo.class, vars); 

When the look-up on the server side fails it returns a 404 along with some XML. I end up getting an UnmarshalException thrown as it cannot read the XML.

Caused by: javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException: unexpected element (uri:"", local:"exception"). Expected elements are <{}foo>,<{}bar> 

The body of the response is:

<exception>     <message>Could not find a Foo for ID 123</message> </exception> 

How can I configure the RestTemplate so that RestTemplate.getForObject() returns null if a 404 happens?

Answer 1

Foo foo = null; try {     foo = restTemplate.getForObject(url, Foo.class, vars); } catch (HttpClientErrorException ex)   {     if (ex.getStatusCode() != HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND) {         throw ex;     } } 

Answer 2

To capture 404 NOT FOUND errors specifically you can catch HttpClientErrorException.NotFound

Foo foo; try {     foo = restTemplate.getForObject(url, Foo.class, vars); } catch (HttpClientErrorException.NotFound ex) {     foo = null; }