Errors

In this guide, we will talk about what happens when something goes wrong while you work with the ShkolaFit API. Mistakes happen, and mostly they will be yours, not ours. Let's look at some status codes and error types you might encounter.

You can tell if your request was successful by checking the status code when receiving an API response. If a response comes back unsuccessful, you can use the error type and error message to figure out what has gone wrong and do some rudimentary debugging (before contacting support).

Before reaching out to support with an error, please be aware that 99% of all reported errors are, in fact, user errors. Therefore, please carefully check your code before contacting ShkolaFit support.

Status codes

Here is a list of the different categories of status codes returned by the ShkolaFit API. Use these to understand if a request was successful.

Name
2xx
Description
A 2xx status code indicates a successful response.
Name
4xx
Description
A 4xx status code indicates a client error — this means it's a you problem.
Name
5xx
Description
A 5xx status code indicates a server error — you won't be seeing these.

Error types

Whenever a request is unsuccessful, the ShkolaFit API will return an error response with an error type and message. You can use this information to understand better what has gone wrong and how to fix it. Most of the error messages are pretty helpful and actionable.

Here is a list of the two error types supported by the ShkolaFit API — use these to understand what you have done wrong.

Name
api_error
Description
This means that we made an error, which is highly speculative and unlikely.
Name
invalid_request
Description
This means that you made an error, which is much more likely.

Error response

{
  "type": "api_error",
  "message": "No way this is happening!?",
  "documentation_url": "https://shkolafit.com/docs/errors"
}

Debugging

If you encounter an error response from the ShkolaFit API, you can use the error type and message in the response body to guide your debugging efforts.

Here’s an example of an error response you might encounter when the ShkolaFit API is not able to process your request due to a bad token or an invalid request:

curl -G https://api.shkolafit.com/v1/fetchSchoolDetails \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer invalid-token"

Error response

{
  "type": "invalid_request",
  "message": "Invalid token provided",
  "documentation_url": "https://shkolafit.com/docs/errors"
}

In this case, the error type invalid_request indicates that the problem lies with the request made, likely due to the token provided.

Common Issues

Authentication Errors: If your token is invalid or expired, you’ll encounter an invalid_request error. Please ensure that the Authorization header contains a valid Bearer token.
API Rate Limits: If you exceed the rate limit for API calls, you may receive a 429 status code along with an error message detailing the limit breach.
Incorrect Parameters: If required parameters are missing or incorrect, you will receive an error indicating what is wrong. For instance, a missing tokenID might result in an error like:

With this information, you should be able to handle most of the errors you’ll encounter when using the ShkolaFit API. Always ensure to check the response codes and messages to better understand the cause of the issue before contacting support.