Laravel 4 not able to catch Exception

Question

I have tried to isolate this problem (to produce it outside my app), but I can't.

try {
    $has_cache = Cache::has($cache_key);
}
catch (DecryptException $e) {
    echo "No biggie";
    exit;
}

I also tried with a catch (Exception $e), the same thing happens.

Using this code, I get a DecryptException in the second line. How can this happen, it's in the try block?

Like I said, I tried to do the same on a clean project, but there it caught the exception, so I'm asking where could I have messed something up.

Answer 1

If your application is namespaced, you would need to use

catch(\Exception $e);
// or preferably
catch(\RuntimeException $e);

likewise, I think the DecryptException you are trying to catch is namespaced in Illuminate\Encryption so you'd need

catch(\Illuminate\Encryption\DecryptException)
// or use "use" somewhere before the try/catch
use \Illuminate\Encryption\DecryptException

Keep in mind that Laravel 4 is still alpha or pre-beta (apparently they are not sure themselves), so it is in no way stable and probably not the best choice for production.

Answer 2

For laravel 5.1 you should write(generally at start of the file with other use statements):

use Illuminate\Contracts\Encryption\DecryptException;

Before catch statement:

try {
    $data = \Crypt::decrypt($key);
} catch (DecryptException $e) {
    echo 'caught exception';
    exit();
}

Ref: https://laravel.com/docs/5.1/encryption - under "Decrypting A Value"

May be helpful for others.