Implement user friendly exceptions

[buremba]

It would be nice if we could generate user-friendly exceptions from JacksonMappingExceptions. Here is an example exception:

com.fasterxml.jackson.module.kotlin.MissingKotlinParameterException: Instantiation of [simple type, class io.rakam.ui.service.recipe.Recipe$ExportDashboard] value failed for JSON property name due to missing (therefore NULL) value for creator parameter name which is a non-nullable type
 at [Source: (String)"{"fname":"Events Overview","category":"Segment Events","filterSchema":[{"name":"dateRange","type":"mappingDimension","value":{"name":"eventTimestamp"},"defaultValue":"P5Y","isRequired":true}],"reports":[{"name":"Events by Last Seen App Version","ttl":"PT1H","x":0,"y":3,"h":2,"w":6,"component":"r-segmentation-table","type":1,"reportOptions":{"modelName":"segment_events","dimensions":[{"name":"event_text","modelName":"segment_events","relationName":null,"postOperation":null}],"measures":[{"name":""[truncated 2664 chars]; line: 1, column: 3164] (through reference chain: io.rakam.ui.service.recipe.Recipe$ExportDashboard["name"])

Something like the following message that includes JsonPath would be much more helpful to the users:

Parameter .name is required.

We're currently doing this in our web application but since the data mappers have their own exceptions, we need to handle many different cases. It might be a good practice if JsonMappingException could have a method such as getUserFriendlyMessage that allows developers to do it in data-mappers.

[buremba]

I realized that I actually created a relevant thread in Google Groups 2.5 years ago. :) Here is the link:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/jackson-user/user$20friendly%7Csort:date/jackson-user/uANVNXoi9HI/46YVwrBUAgAJ

I still think that it would be great if Jackson would support it out of the box.

[cowtowncoder]

In general I am definitely +1 for improved exception messages.
One major caveat here is that there is no central point with enough information so in many cases improvements need to be made for specific subset of failure cases. On plus side, more and more information is now available via context so that JSONPointer compatible notation can be created (and is in fact produced for many exceptions).