Handling Client Errors with aiohttp

Feb 22, 2024 ยท 2 min read

When building applications with aiohttp, you may encounter client errors when making requests. These occur when there is an issue on the client side, such as an invalid request, that prevents the request from completing successfully. Knowing how to handle these errors properly is important for writing robust aiohttp code.

What is a Client Error?

A client error occurs when aiohttp is unable to complete a request due to a client-side issue. Some common examples include:

  • 400 Bad Request - The request syntax is invalid or cannot be fulfilled. This often occurs due to missing or invalid parameters.
  • 401 Unauthorized - Authentication is required and has failed or has not been provided.
  • 403 Forbidden - The client does not have permission to access the requested resource.
  • 404 Not Found - The requested resource does not exist.
  • These indicate an issue with the request itself rather than a problem with the server.

    Handling Client Errors

    When a client error response is received, aiohttp will raise a ClientResponseError. This exception object contains details about the error response such as status code, headers, and body.

    Here is an example of handling a 404 error:

    import aiohttp
    
    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
        async with session.get('http://example.com/invalid-url') as resp:
            if resp.status == 404:
                print('Resource was not found!')

    It's good practice to check the status code and handle expected errors rather than only relying on exceptions. This allows you to distinguish between different error cases and implement custom logic for each if needed.

    For authentication and permission issues, you may wish to prompt the user to login again before retrying the request. For invalid parameters, you can return a 400 error to the client and ask them to resubmit the corrected request.

    Key Takeaways

  • Use the ClientResponseError exception and status code to identify client errors.
  • Implement checks and custom error handling logic for expected cases.
  • Distinguish between different errors instead of treating all as failures.
  • Consider how to correct issues and retry requests when appropriate.
  • Handling client errors gracefully is essential to providing a good application experience for your users. aiohttp gives you the tools - the rest is up to your logic!

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