code duplication in try catch block

Question

Is there a better way to catch exceptions? I seem to be duplicating a lot of code. Basically in every controller I have a catch statement which does this:

try
{
     Do  something that might throw exceptions.
}
catch (exception ex)
{
     Open database connection
     Save exception details.
     If connection cannot be made to the database save exception in a text file.
}

I have 4 controllers and around 5-6 actions methods in each controller which is a lot of code duplication. How can I trim down on the amount of line in the try catch statement above?

Answer 1

You could make use of Extension methods here.

Create an extension method in a new class.

public static class ExtensionMethods
{
    public static void Log(this Exception obj)
    {
        // log your Exception here.
    }
}

And use it like:

try
{
}
catch (Exception obj)
{
    obj.Log();
}

Answer 2

You don't need to put try/catch blocks on every method. That's tedious and painful! Instead you can use the Application_Error event of Global.asax for logging the exceptions. The code below is the sample implementation which can be used to catch exceptions that occur in your web application.

protected void Application_Error(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var error = Server.GetLastError();
    if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error.Message))
    {
        //do whatever you want if exception occurs
        Context.ClearError();
    }
}

I would like also to stress that "Handled exception" especially trying to put try/catch blocks on most methods is one of the "Top 3 silent performance killers for IIS / ASP.NET apps" as explained in this blog http://mvolo.com/fix-the-3-high-cpu-performance-problems-for-iis-aspnet-apps/