ePMA Implementation Guidance for FHIR STU3

Please note: This guidance has been superseded by the Implementation guide for digitial medicines, which contains up-to-date information.

Internal server errors

When the FHIR server has received a request for an operation or FHIR resource which is not (yet) implemented, then the NOT_IMPLEMENTED Spine error code MUST be used.

HTTP code	Issue type	Error code	Error message
`501`	not-supported	`NOT_IMPLEMENTED`	FHIR resource or operation not implemented at server.

When the error is unexpected and the server can’t be more specific on the exact nature of the problem then the INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR Spine error code MUST be used, and diagnostics MUST be included to provide detail of the error.

HTTP code	Issue type	Error code	Error message
`500`	processing	`INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR`	Unexpected internal server error.

Example: Unexpected exception

For example, if an unexpected internal exception is thrown by either an Operation or RESTful API, then the following error details would be returned:

{
    "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
    "meta": {
        "profile": [
            "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/Spine-OperationOutcome-1"
        ]
    },
    "issue": [
        {
            "severity": "error",
            "code": "exception",
            "details": {
                "coding": [
                    {
                        "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/ValueSet/Spine-ErrorOrWarningCode-1",
                        "code": "INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR",
                        "display": "Internal server error"
                    }
                ]
            },
            "diagnostics": "Any further internal debug details i.e. stack trace details etc."
        }
  ]
}