How to handle exceptions when writing a library (not an application) - Java

Question

I'm currently writing an Java Wrapper for a RESTful web services API.

I'm now trying to clean up some of the exception handling, and not sure what approach to take. This is a tool intended to be used by Java programmers, so I can't really handle it the same way I would with a end-user application.

If I have a method (connection) that contains code that could throw exceptions, how do I get those exceptions to float up to the end-programmer? and is this even the way I should handle it, depending on them to catch the exceptions? etc...

Answer 1

I suggest you catch the exceptions from the underlying API (unless they really make sense to allow through), and throw a new exception which is more appropriate for your level of abstraction.

Use exception chaining if you don't feel like discarding the cause of the exception.