Return JSON with error status code MVC

Question

I found the solution here

I had to create a action filter to override the default behaviour of MVC

Here is my exception class

class ValidationException : ApplicationException
{
    public JsonResult exceptionDetails;
    public ValidationException(JsonResult exceptionDetails)
    {
        this.exceptionDetails = exceptionDetails;
    }
    public ValidationException(string message) : base(message) { }
    public ValidationException(string message, Exception inner) : base(message, inner) { }
    protected ValidationException(
    System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationInfo info,
    System.Runtime.Serialization.StreamingContext context)
        : base(info, context) { }
}

Note that I have constructor which initializes my JSON. Here is the action filter

public class HandleUIExceptionAttribute : FilterAttribute, IExceptionFilter
{
    public virtual void OnException(ExceptionContext filterContext)
    {
        if (filterContext == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("filterContext");
        }
        if (filterContext.Exception != null)
        {
            filterContext.ExceptionHandled = true;
            filterContext.HttpContext.Response.Clear();
            filterContext.HttpContext.Response.TrySkipIisCustomErrors = true;
            filterContext.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = (int)System.Net.HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError;
            filterContext.Result = ((ValidationException)filterContext.Exception).myJsonError;
        }
    }

Now that I have the action filter, I will decorate my controller with the filter attribute

[HandleUIException]
public JsonResult UpdateName(string objectToUpdate)
{
   var response = myClient.ValidateObject(objectToUpdate);
   if (response.errors.Length > 0)
     throw new ValidationException(Json(response));
}

When the error is thrown the action filter which implements IExceptionFilter get called and I get back the Json on the client on error callback.

The neatest solution I've found is to create your own JsonResult that extends the original implementation and allows you to specify a HttpStatusCode:

public class JsonHttpStatusResult : JsonResult
{
    private readonly HttpStatusCode _httpStatus;

    public JsonHttpStatusResult(object data, HttpStatusCode httpStatus)
    {
        Data = data;
        _httpStatus = httpStatus;
    }

    public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
    {
        context.RequestContext.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = (int)_httpStatus;
        base.ExecuteResult(context);
    }
}

You can then use this in your controller action like so:

if(thereWereErrors)
{
    var errorModel = new { error = "There was an error" };
    return new JsonHttpStatusResult(errorModel, HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError);
}

There is a very elegant solution to this problem, just configure your site via web.config:

<system.webServer>
    <httpErrors errorMode="DetailedLocalOnly" existingResponse="PassThrough"/>
</system.webServer>

Source: https://serverfault.com/questions/123729/iis-is-overriding-my-response-content-if-i-manually-set-the-response-statuscode

Building on the answer from Richard Garside, here's the ASP.Net Core version

public class JsonErrorResult : JsonResult
{
    private readonly HttpStatusCode _statusCode;

    public JsonErrorResult(object json) : this(json, HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError)
    {
    }

    public JsonErrorResult(object json, HttpStatusCode statusCode) : base(json)
    {
        _statusCode = statusCode;
    }

    public override void ExecuteResult(ActionContext context)
    {
        context.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = (int)_statusCode;
        base.ExecuteResult(context);
    }

    public override Task ExecuteResultAsync(ActionContext context)
    {
        context.HttpContext.Response.StatusCode = (int)_statusCode;
        return base.ExecuteResultAsync(context);
    }
}

Then in your controller, return as follows:

// Set a json object to return. The status code defaults to 500
return new JsonErrorResult(new { message = "Sorry, an internal error occurred."});

// Or you can override the status code
return new JsonErrorResult(new { foo = "bar"}, HttpStatusCode.NotFound);