Ethereum: calling an API endpoint at a price of 0x and getting a 400 Bad Request error

Handling Errors with the 0x Price API: A Guide

In this article, we will explore how to handle errors when making a call to the 0x price API endpoint. Specifically, we will address an issue where we receive an error response with a 400 Bad Request status code.

The Issue

When using the 0x price API, you need to make a POST request to to retrieve the latest prices for a given Ethereum address. However, there is no guarantee that this request will be successful, and even if it is, you may not get a response at all.

The Error: 400 Bad Request

If your server does not return an error message when making the POST request, but returns a response with a 200 OK status code or another non-200 status code. This can happen for several reasons:

  • The API endpoint is not configured correctly.
  • The API has reached its usage limit (although this is unlikely to be the case).
  • The server is throwing an internal error.

Addressing the error: Implementing a try-catch block

To handle these errors, we will use a try-catch block in our front-end code. Here is how you can modify your code:

const ethereumPrice = async () => {

const API_URL = '

const address = '0xYourEthereumAddress'; // Replace with your Ethereum address

try {

const response = await fetch(API_URL, {

method: 'POST',

headers: {

'Content-Type': 'application/json'

},

body: JSON.stringify({ amount: 1 }), // Replace with the input value

});

if (response.ok) {

const data = await response.json();

console.log(data);

} else {

throw new Error(Error ${response.status}: ${response.statusText});

}

} catch (error) {

console.error(error.message); // Log the error message

// You can also display an error message to the user

alert('Failed to fetch price. Please try again later.');

}

};

What’s going on here?

In this code:

  • We define a function ethereumPricethat makes a POST request to the 0x API endpoint with the input value and Ethereum address.
  • Inside thetryblock, we handle three potential errors:
  • If the response is OK (200-299), we log the data returned by the API and continue execution.
  • If the response indicates an error (400-499), we throw a new error object with the status code and message.
  • In thecatchblock, we handle any unexpected errors that occur during the request or after thetryblock.

Conclusion

By using try-catch blocks to catch errors when making calls to the 0x Price API, you can ensure that your front-end code doesn’t crash if an error occurs. This approach provides a clean and maintainable way to handle errors in your application.

Note: In this example, we assume that thefetch` API is supported by all browsers. If you need to support older browsers or Edge, consider using a different method for making POST requests, such as using XMLHttpRequest or Axios.