catch error message from 404 response with axios or fetch in javascript

Question

I'm trying to support a 404 response from api (https://rickandmortyapi.com) with axios.

So when item exists the response looks like this:

{
  "data": {
    "id": 11,
    "name": "Albert Einstein",
    // ...
  },
  "status": 200,
  "statusText": "OK",
  "headers": {
    "content-type": "application/json; charset=utf-8"
  },
  "config": {
    "transformRequest": {},
    "transformResponse": {},
    // ...
  },
  "request": {}
}

If not found response is 404 and the data is like:

{
"error": "Character not found"
}

So I want to read this error message and put this into a variable but no effect. I have something like that for testing:

new Vue({
  el: "#app",
  data: {
    existingCharacter: {},
    nonExistingCharacter: {}
  },
  methods: {
    apiRequest (id, character) {
    	console.log('starting Request');
			axios('https://rickandmortyapi.com/api/character/'+id, {
        validateStatus: function (status) {
          return status < 500; // Reject only if the status code is greater than or equal to 500
        })
      	.then((res) => {
        	console.log('got response');
        	console.log(res);
          this[character] = res;
          }
        ).catch(function (error) {
          if (error.response) {
            // The request was made and the server responded with a status code
            // that falls out of the range of 2xx
            console.log(error.response.data);
            console.log(error.response.status);
            console.log(error.response.headers);
          } else if (error.request) {
            // The request was made but no response was received
            // `error.request` is an instance of XMLHttpRequest in the browser and an instance of
            // http.ClientRequest in node.js
            console.log(error.request);
          } else {
            // Something happened in setting up the request that triggered an Error
            console.log('Error', error.message);
          }
          console.log(error.config);
        })
        .then(function () {
          console.log('request finished');
        });
    }		
  }
})

<script src="https://unpkg.com/axios/dist/axios.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/bulma/0.7.4/css/bulma.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/vue/2.5.17/vue.js"></script>

<div id="app">
  <div class="columns is-mobile">
  
    <div class="column is-half">
      <h2 class="title">existing item: </h2>
       <button class="button is-fullwidth" 
        @click="apiRequest(11, 'existingCharacter')">
        get
      </button>
      <pre>{{existingCharacter}}</pre>
    </div>    
  
    <div class="column is-half">
      <h2 class="title">non existing item:</h2>
       <button class="button is-fullwidth" 
         @click="apiRequest(1123, 'nonExistingCharacter')">
       get</button>
      <pre>{{nonExistingCharacter}}</pre>
    </div>    
    
  </div>
</div>

So as we see there is no response when server responded with 404. Any tips to read this message from 404 response?

I also tried this with fetch but i think the problem is the same. When server returning 404 I've got just error and nothing more. Is it a good practice to return those messages with 404?? I also see that on 404 there is a CORS message in console (maybe this is a key)

Thanks for help. :)

Answer 1

Edit: Feb 6, 2023

This issue was fixed as of Mar 19, 2019 https://github.com/afuh/rick-and-morty-api/issues/42

If you are experimenting issues, the below reason is no longer the case.

---

It's a limitation of The Rick and Morty API. It doesn't send CORS headers when the request returns a 404. And when there are CORS issues you can't read the response.

You can check this yourself in the DevTools

---

You can file an issue at their GitHub repo if you want.