Actions often invoke services that encapsulate complex business logic. These services may throw business exceptions that the action code should handle.
The following example invokes an action that catches a business exception, adds a error message to the context, and returns a result event identifier. The result is treated as a flow event which the calling flow can then respond to.
<evaluate expression="bookingAction.makeBooking(booking, flowRequestContext)" />
public class BookingAction { public String makeBooking(Booking booking, RequestContext context) { try { BookingConfirmation confirmation = bookingService.make(booking); context.getFlowScope().put("confirmation", confirmation); return "success"; } catch (RoomNotAvailableException e) { context.addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error(). .defaultText("No room is available at this hotel").build()); return "error"; } } }
The following example is functionally equivlant to the last, but implemented as a MultiAction instead of a POJO action.
The MultiAction requires its action methods to be of the signature Event ${methodName}(RequestContext)
, providing stronger type safety, while a POJO action allows for more freedom.
<evaluate expression="bookingAction.makeBooking" />
public class BookingAction extends MultiAction { public Event makeBooking(RequestContext context) { try { Booking booking = (Booking) context.getFlowScope().get("booking"); BookingConfirmation confirmation = bookingService.make(booking); context.getFlowScope().put("confirmation", confirmation); return success(); } catch (RoomNotAvailableException e) { context.getMessageContext().addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error(). .defaultText("No room is available at this hotel").build()); return error(); } } }