JSF Custom EL function - encapsulating an Exception - jsf

Question

Following the example (based on a similar question):
/**
*
*/
package za.co.sindi.jsf.functions;
import java.io.IOException;
import org.markdown4j.Markdown4jProcessor;
/**
*
* #author Buhake Sindi
* #since 22 January 2013
*
*/
public final class SomeFunctions {
/**
* Private constructor
*/
private SomeFunctions() {
//TODO: Nothing...
}
public static String process(String input) {
SomeProcessor processor = new SomeProcessor();
try {
return processor.process(input);
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace(); //I don't believe this is correct.
}
}
}
What do I do inside the catch block? Do I just log it on a java Logger or is there a preferred JSF way on encapsulating an Exception?

Answer 1

Depends on the concrete functional requirements.
If an empty output is acceptable, log it and return null.
public static String process(String input) {
SomeProcessor processor = new SomeProcessor();
try {
return processor.process(input);
} catch (IOException e) {
someLogger.warn("Processing markdown failed", e);
return null;
}
}
If it's not acceptable, throw it.
public static String process(String input) throws IOException {
SomeProcessor processor = new SomeProcessor();
return processor.process(input);
}
Unrelated to the concrete problem, you'd better process markdown and store as property (and ultimately also in DB) only once during create/update instead of processing the very same output again and again. So, effectively you end up with 2 properties / DB columns, one with raw markdown and another with parsed/processed markdown.