Errors

WebLN provides some common error types to try to formalize error handling across applications. You can import them from the library, and throw them in like so:

import { UnsupportedMethodError } from "webln";

Handling Errors as an App

If you want to handle specific errors, rather than just doing a one-size-fits-all, you'll need to import the error and check it against the thrown error. Here's an example:

import { requestProvider, MissingProviderError } from "webln";

try {
  const webln = requestProvider();
  /* do whatever webln function */
} catch (err) {
  // Default error message
  let message = `Something went wrong: ${err.message}`;
  // If they didn't have a provider, point them to Joule
  if (err.constructor === MissingProviderError) {
    message = "Check out https://lightningjoule.com to get a WebLN provider";
  }
  // Show the error (though you should probably use something better than alert!)
  alert(message);
}

Throwing Errors as a Provider

As a WebLN provider, you should try to provide accurate errors whenever possible. This will allow apps to provide users with a way to handle their error, tailored to the use case. Simply import and throw one of the errors wherever relevant. Here's an example:

import { UnsupportedMethodError } from "webln";

class MyWebLNProvider {
  signMessage() {
    throw new UnsupportedMethodError(
      "Message signing not supported yet, sorry!",
    );
  }
}

Error Reference

Class name	Description
MissingProviderError	Thrown when `requestProvider` doesn't find a provider. This is a good one to catch to direct users to install an extension or browser that supports WebLN, especially if you have a favorite.
RejectionError	Thrown by providers when a user indicates that they don't want to complete a request from the application.
ConnectionError	Thrown by providers when the node the provider use could not be reached for connection reasons (Either the user's network is down, or the node's network is down.)
UnsupportedMethodError	Providers that only partially implement the WebLN spec can throw this error for methods they don't support.
RoutingError	Thrown by providers when a node couldn't be routed to. This is a good time to prompt users to add your node as a peer, or open a channel.
InvalidDataError	Thrown by providers if some data passed by the application is incorrect, such as a malformed BOLT-11 payment request.
InternalError	A catch-all for errors that happened in the provider that the app can't really do anything about.