[Proposal] SOAR-0011: Improved error handling

Sources/swift-openapi-generator/Documentation.docc/Proposals/Proposals.md

@@ -52,3 +52,4 @@ If you have any questions, tag [Honza Dvorsky](https://github.com/czechboy0) or
 - <doc:SOAR-0008>
 - <doc:SOAR-0009>
 - <doc:SOAR-0010>
+- <doc:SOAR-0011>

Sources/swift-openapi-generator/Documentation.docc/Proposals/SOAR-0011.md

@@ -0,0 +1,159 @@
+# SOAR-0011: Improved Error Handling
+
+Improve error handling by adding the ability for mapping application errors to HTTP responses.
+
+## Overview
+
+- Proposal: SOAR-0011
+- Author(s): [Gayathri Sairamkrishnan](https://github.com/gayathrisairam)
+- Status: **In Review**
+- Issue: [apple/swift-openapi-generator#609](https://github.com/apple/swift-openapi-generator/issues/609)
+- Affected components:
+    - runtime
+- Versions:
+    - v1.0 (2024-09-19): Initial version
+    - v1.1(2024-10-07):
+      - Replace the proposed solution to have a single error handling protocol, with the status being required and
+        headers/body being optional.
+
+### Introduction
+
+The goal of this proposal to improve the current error handling mechanism in Swift OpenAPI runtime. The proposal 
+introduces a way for users to map errors thrown by their handlers to specific HTTP responses.
+
+### Motivation
+
+ When implementing a server with Swift OpenAPI Generator, users implement a type that conforms to a generated protocol, 
+ providing one method for each API operation defined in the OpenAPI document. At runtime, if this function throws, it's up to the server transport to transform it into an HTTP response status code – for example, some transport use `500 Internal Error`.
+
+Instead, server developers may want to map errors thrown by the application to a more specific HTTP response. 
+Currently, this can be achieved by checking for each error type in each handler's catch block, converting it to an 
+appropriate HTTP response and returning it. 
+
+For example,
+```swift
+func getGreeting(_ input: Operations.getGreeting.Input) async throws -> Operations.getGreeting.Output {
+  do {
+      let response = try callGreetingLib()
+      return .ok(.init(body: response))
+  } catch let error {
+    switch error {
+      case GreetingError.authorizationError:
+        return .unauthorized(.init())
+      case GreetingError.timeout:
+        return ...
+    }
+  }  
+}
+```
+If a user wishes to map many errors, the error handling block scales linearly and introduces a lot of ceremony.
+
+### Proposed solution
+
+The proposed solution is twofold.
+
+1. Provide a protocol in `OpenAPIRuntime` to allow users to extend their error types with mappings to HTTP responses.
+
+2. Provide an (opt-in) middleware in OpenAPIRuntime that will call the conversion function on conforming error types when
+constructing the HTTP response.
+
+Vapor has a similar mechanism called [AbortError](https://docs.vapor.codes/basics/errors/). 
+
+Hummingbird also has an [error handling mechanism](https://docs.hummingbird.codes/2.0/documentation/hummingbird/errorhandling/)
+by allowing users to define a [HTTPError](https://docs.hummingbird.codes/2.0/documentation/hummingbird/httperror)
+
+The proposal aims to provide a transport agnostic error handling mechanism for OpenAPI users.
+
+### Detailed design
+
+#### Proposed Error protocols
+
+Users can choose to conform to the error handling protocol below and optionally provide the optional fields depending on
+the level of specificity they would like to have in the response. 
+
+```swift
+public protocol HTTPResponseConvertible {
+    var httpStatus: HTTPResponse.Status { get }
+    var httpHeaderFields: HTTPTypes.HTTPFields { get }
+    var httpBody: OpenAPIRuntime.HTTPBody? { get }
+}
+
+extension HTTPResponseConvertible {
+    var httpHeaderFields: HTTPTypes.HTTPFields { [:] }
+    var httpBody: OpenAPIRuntime.HTTPBody? { nil }
+}
+```
+
+#### Proposed Error Middleware
+
+The proposed error middleware in OpenAPIRuntime will convert the application error to the appropriate error response.
+ It returns 500 for application error(s) that do not conform to HTTPResponseConvertible protocol.
+
+```swift
+public struct ErrorHandlingMiddleware: ServerMiddleware {
+    func intercept(_ request: HTTPTypes.HTTPRequest, 
+                   body: OpenAPIRuntime.HTTPBody?, 
+                   metadata: OpenAPIRuntime.ServerRequestMetadata, 
+                   operationID: String, 
+                   next: @Sendable (HTTPTypes.HTTPRequest, OpenAPIRuntime.HTTPBody?, OpenAPIRuntime.ServerRequestMetadata) async throws -> (HTTPTypes.HTTPResponse, OpenAPIRuntime.HTTPBody?)) async throws -> (HTTPTypes.HTTPResponse, OpenAPIRuntime.HTTPBody?) {
+        do {
+            return try await next(request, body, metadata)
+        } catch let error as ServerError {
+            if let appError = error.underlyingError as? HTTPResponseConvertible else {
+                return (HTTPResponse(status: appError.httpStatus, headerFields: appError.httpHeaderFields), 
+                appError.httpBody)
+            } else {
+                throw error
+            } 
+        }
+    }
+}
+```
+
+Please note that the proposal places the responsibility to conform to the documented API in the hands of the user.
+There's no mechanism to prevent the users from inadvertently transforming a thrown error into an undocumented response. 
+
+#### Example usage
+
+1. Create an error type that conforms to the error protocol
+```swift
+extension MyAppError: HTTPResponseConvertible {
+    var httpStatus: HTTPResponse.Status {
+        switch self {
+        case .invalidInputFormat:
+            .badRequest
+        case .authorizationError:
+            .forbidden
+        }
+    }
+}
+```
+
+2. Opt in to the error middleware while registering the handler
+
+```swift
+let handler = try await RequestHandler()
+try handler.registerHandlers(on: transport, middlewares: [ErrorHandlingMiddleware()])
+
+```
+
+### API stability
+
+This feature is purely additive:
+- Additional APIs in the runtime library
+
+
+### Future directions
+
+A possible future direction is to add the error middleware by default by changing the [default value for the middlewares](https://github.com/apple/swift-openapi-runtime/blob/main/Sources/OpenAPIRuntime/Interface/UniversalServer.swift#L56)
+argument in handler initialisation. 
+
+### Alternatives considered
+
+An alternative here is to invoke the error conversion function directly from OpenAPIRuntime's handler. The feature would 
+still be opt-in as users have to explicitly conform to the new error protocols.
+
+However, there is a rare case where an application might depend on a library (for eg: an auth library) which in turn 
+depends on OpenAPIRuntime. If the authentication library conforms to the new error protocols, this would result in a 
+breaking change for the application, whereas an error middleware provides flexibility to the user on whether they 
+want to subscribe to the new behaviour or not.