DRF Exceptions Hog

Warnings

• gotcha By default, `drf-exceptions-hog` is disabled when `DEBUG=True` in Django settings. This is intentional to allow developers to see full stack traces for debugging. To enable standardized error responses even in debug mode, you must explicitly set `DRF_EXCEPTIONS_HOG = {"ENABLE_IN_DEBUG": True}` in your `settings.py`.
  Fix: To enable in debug mode, add `DRF_EXCEPTIONS_HOG = {'ENABLE_IN_DEBUG': True}` to your `settings.py`.
• gotcha Versions prior to `0.0.5` lacked explicit support for handling exceptions from deeply nested serializers, which could lead to inconsistent or incomplete error response formats for complex validation scenarios.
  Fix: Upgrade to version `0.0.5` or newer for improved handling of nested validation errors.
• gotcha Older versions might have encountered a `KeyError` when processing serializer validation errors that included the `__all__` key (used for non-field errors, e.g., from unique constraints or `full_clean` on a model). This issue was addressed in a fix related to GitHub issue #12.
  Fix: Ensure you are using a recent version of `drf-exceptions-hog` to avoid `KeyError` with `__all__` non-field errors.
• gotcha In production (when `DEBUG=False`), `drf-exceptions-hog` intentionally returns a generic 'A server error occurred.' for unhandled 5xx exceptions. This is a security measure to prevent sensitive information leakage (e.g., raw tracebacks, internal paths). For detailed error reporting, integrate with an error monitoring tool like Sentry.
  Fix: Do not rely on `detail` field for unhandled 5xx errors in production. Use `ENABLE_IN_DEBUG: True` only in development, or configure a separate error monitoring service for production.

Install

• pip install drf-exceptions-hog Install stable version

Imports

• exception_handler

  REST_FRAMEWORK = { "EXCEPTION_HANDLER": "exceptions_hog.exception_handler" }

  This is the primary way to integrate drf-exceptions-hog by configuring DRF's exception handler in your Django settings.

Quickstart

To integrate drf-exceptions-hog, update your Django REST Framework settings in your `settings.py` file to use `exceptions_hog.exception_handler` as the default exception handler. Optionally, you can configure `ENABLE_IN_DEBUG` to control its behavior in development mode.

# settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',

    'rest_framework',
    # 'exceptions_hog' is not strictly required in INSTALLED_APPS
    # if only using the handler, but good practice if it has models/migrations.
    # For drf-exceptions-hog, it usually isn't needed.
]

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'EXCEPTION_HANDLER': 'exceptions_hog.exception_handler',
    # Optional: Enable in DEBUG mode to see standardized errors even during development.
    # By default, it's disabled when DEBUG=True to allow full stack traces.
    # 'DRF_EXCEPTIONS_HOG': {'ENABLE_IN_DEBUG': True}
}

# views.py (example usage for testing)
from rest_framework.views import APIView
from rest_framework.response import Response
from rest_framework import status
from rest_framework.exceptions import ValidationError

class ExampleView(APIView):
    def get(self, request):
        if request.query_params.get('error'):
            raise ValidationError({'field': 'This is a validation error.'})
        if request.query_params.get('server_error'):
            1 / 0 # Simulate an unhandled server error
        return Response({"message": "Hello, world!"}, status=status.HTTP_200_OK)