Policy Xpress REST API Exception Handling

Products

• CA Identity Manager
• CA Identity Suite

Issue/Introduction

In a IDM environment,  We have a Policy Xpress Action rule configured to invoke a REST API calls using REST Base Query.

How can we handle the scenario where the REST API is down or unavailable.  In this use case we would like to send an email to related groups.

Environment

Release : 14.3

Component : IdentityMinder(Identity Manager)

Resolution

The action rules menu does not have the ability to handle exceptions. However, on the Data tab, selecting the Category: Data Sources, Type: Rest Base Query has the option called " Don't Throw Exception on Error." At a high level, you could parse the response to get the information needed and have an email sent.

Here are the function description displayed on the page:

Execute a REST call with anonymous authentication. Click the 'Add Parameter' button to add an extra HTTP header (syntax: 'name=value'). The returned attribute is optional. If specified, the value (single value or multi-values concatenated with '^') of the attribute in the response will be returned by the plugin; otherwise the whole response with JSON format will be returned. When "Don't Throw Exception on Error" is checked, whenever the REST operation fails, a JSON string containing the error code, the error cause and the error details is returned to the current data element.