Error handling (Sending ex.Message to the client)

Here is an simple error DTO class

public class ErrorDto
{
    public int Code {get;set;}
    public string Message { get; set; }

    // other fields

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(this);
    }
}

And then using the ExceptionHandler middleware:

            app.UseExceptionHandler(errorApp =>
            {
                errorApp.Run(async context =>
                {
                    context.Response.StatusCode = 500; // or another Status accordingly to Exception Type
                    context.Response.ContentType = "application/json";

                    var error = context.Features.Get<IExceptionHandlerFeature>();
                    if (error != null)
                    {
                        var ex = error.Error;

                        await context.Response.WriteAsync(new ErrorDto()
                        {
                            Code = <your custom code based on Exception Type>,
                            Message = ex.Message // or your custom message
                            // other custom data
                        }.ToString(), Encoding.UTF8);
                    }
                });
            });

Yes it is possible to change the status code to whatever you need:

In your CustomExceptionFilterAttribute.cs file modify the code as follows:

public class CustomExceptionFilterAttribute : ExceptionFilterAttribute
{
    public override void OnException(ExceptionContext context)
    {
        var exception = context.Exception;
        context.Result = new ContentResult
        {
            Content = $"Error: {exception.Message}",
            ContentType = "text/plain",
            // change to whatever status code you want to send out
            StatusCode = (int?)HttpStatusCode.BadRequest 
        };
    }
}

That's pretty much it.

If you have custom exceptions, then you can also check for them when grabbing the thrown exception from the context. Following on from that you can then send out different HTTP Status Codes depdending on what has happened in your code.

Hope that helps.

You can create a custom Exception Filter like below

public class CustomExceptionFilterAttribute : ExceptionFilterAttribute
{
    public override void OnException(ExceptionContext context)
    {
        var exception = context.Exception;
        context.Result = new JsonResult(exception.Message);
    }
}

Then apply the above attribute to your controller.

[Route("api/[controller]")]
[CustomExceptionFilter]
public class ValuesController : Controller
{
     // GET: api/values
    [HttpGet]
    public IEnumerable<string> Get()
    {
        throw new Exception("Suckers");
        return new string[] { "value1", "value2" };
    }
}

Rather than raising and catching an exception, how about you simplify your action to:

// GET: api/customers/{id}
[HttpGet("{id}", Name = "GetCustomer")]
public IActionResult GetById(int id)
{
    var customer = _customersService.GetCustomerById(id);

    if (customer == null)
    {
        return NotFound("Customer doesn't exist");        
    }

    return Ok(customer);
}

I wrote a blog post with some more options such as returning a JSON object instead of text.