Display a nice exception message on ajax requests Follow @yiiframework

Basics ¶

When an exception is thrown in our code like

throw new CHttpException(403, 'You are not authorized to perform this action.');

if it is a CHttpException or if YII_DEBUG is not true, the error message can be displayed by using CErrorHandler::errorAction. In the default code generated by yiic this is set to SiteController::actionError() by this settings in config/main.php

'errorHandler' => array(
    'errorAction' => 'site/error',
),

But ¶

in Yii versions previous to 1.1.9 exceptions was handled differently during ajax request and displayed by CApplication::displayException(). This way the exception message displayed on ajax requests could not be customized.
The message for the CGridView delete request with YII_DEBUG set to true looked like

In Yii version 1.1.9 the check for ajax request has been removed so now the exception message is handled by CErrorHandler::errorAction even during ajax requests.

This way the message can be customized for ajax requests.

Example ¶

by using this code

public function actionError()
{
    if($error=Yii::app()->errorHandler->error)
    {
        if(Yii::app()->request->isAjaxRequest)
            echo $error['message'];
        else
            $this->render('error', $error);
    }
}

the exception message for CGridView delete request will look like