Exception Handling Strategy by using WCF Services at Business layer for Enterprise .Net application

Today I would like to discuss a bit on the best practices for handling Exceptions in Enterprise applications where in WCF Service is used at the business layer

Ideally any standard Enterprise application will have 3 layers – Presentation, Business and Data Access.

Predominantly the WCF role will come in to play at Business layer (where in the real business rules are defined/ elicited).

So as a best practice it would be good if you follow these thumb rule at each layer to ensure the smoother operations or flow

Rule 1:

Identify & Define the Type of exception which you want to handle at the business layer

For ex : MyException

[DataContract]

Public class MyException

{

Describe/Collect the details which you want to handle.

}

Rule 2:

Decorate the method/operation with the identified exceptions – Define FaultContract’s for the Operations

For ex:

[ServiceContract]

Public interfact IMyService

{

[OperationContract]

[FaultContract(typeof(MyException))]

Void Get();

}

Rule 3:

Throw the FaultException at the Business layer.

For ex :

Rule 4
At the configuration side – Enable Exception propagation

Rule 5:

At the Presentation layer catch the respective exception which you are throwing from the Business layer.

That’s it!!!

I hope this helps.

Regards,
-Vinayak