Lesson 26 — Global Error Handling Strategies (Production-Ready React Apps)

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🧭 Introduction

In the previous lesson, you learned about Error Boundaries, which protect your UI from crashing during rendering.

But in real-world React applications, errors don’t come from just one place.

Errors can occur in:

  • API calls
  • Authentication flows
  • Network failures
  • Permissions & authorization
  • Unexpected user actions
  • Third-party libraries

If these errors are handled individually everywhere, the result is:
❌ Duplicate logic
❌ Inconsistent UX
❌ Missed error reporting
❌ Hard-to-debug production issues

This lesson teaches you how to design a centralized, global error handling strategy, exactly how production-grade React applications do it.

🎯 What You’ll Learn in This Lesson

By the end of this lesson, you will understand:

  • What “global error handling” really means
  • Different categories of errors in React apps
  • How to centralize API error handling
  • How to combine error boundaries with async handling
  • How to design a global error UX
  • How professional apps log and monitor errors

🧠 What Is Global Error Handling?

Global error handling means:

Handling errors in a consistent, centralized, and predictable way, instead of scattered try/catch blocks everywhere.

Goals:

  • One place to manage errors
  • One consistent user experience
  • One logging & monitoring strategy

🧩 Types of Errors in React Applications

Understanding error types is critical.

🔴 1. Rendering Errors

  • Undefined values in JSX
  • Crashes during render
  • Component lifecycle failures

👉 Handled by Error Boundaries

🔵 2. API / Network Errors

  • 401 / 403 / 500 responses
  • Network failures
  • Timeout issues

👉 Handled globally via API layer

🟡 3. Business Logic Errors

  • Invalid user actions
  • Permission checks
  • Rule violations

👉 Handled via controlled UI logic

🟢 4. Unexpected Runtime Errors

  • Third-party failures
  • Edge cases
  • Browser-specific issues

👉 Logged and reported globally

🧠 Why Error Boundaries Alone Are NOT Enough

Error boundaries:

  • Catch render-time errors ✔
  • Show fallback UI ✔

But they cannot:

  • Catch async errors
  • Catch API failures
  • Handle authorization issues

👉 Global error handling must combine multiple strategies.

🏗️ Architecture Overview (Big Picture)

A professional React app handles errors at multiple layers:

UI Layer          → Error Boundaries
API Layer         → Global API handler
State Layer       → Centralized error state
Monitoring Layer  → Logging & alerts

Each layer has a responsibility.

🧩 Global API Error Handling (Very Important)

Most errors in real apps come from API calls.

Instead of handling errors in every component:

❌ Bad Practice:

try {
  const res = await fetch("/api/users");
} catch (e) {
  setError(e);
}

✅ Good Practice: Centralized API Wrapper

async function apiClient(url, options = {}) {
  const response = await fetch(url, options);

  if (!response.ok) {
    const error = await response.json();
    throw {
      status: response.status,
      message: error.message || "Something went wrong"
    };
  }

  return response.json();
}

Now:
✔ All API errors go through one place
✔ Consistent error structure

🧠 Handling API Errors Globally in UI

try {
  const users = await apiClient("/api/users");
} catch (error) {
  showGlobalError(error.message);
}

You control:

  • Messaging
  • Logging
  • Redirects

🔐 Handling Authentication Errors (401 / 403)

Authentication errors should not be handled randomly.

Example Strategy

if (error.status === 401) {
  logoutUser();
  redirectToLogin();
}

This logic belongs in:

  • API layer
  • Auth middleware
  • Central handler

Not in individual components.

🧠 Global Error Context (UI-Level Strategy)

Use a Global Error Context to show errors consistently.

Creating Error Context

const ErrorContext = React.createContext();

function ErrorProvider({ children }) {
  const [error, setError] = React.useState(null);

  return (
    <ErrorContext.Provider value={{ error, setError }}>
      {children}
    </ErrorContext.Provider>
  );
}

Showing Global Error UI

function GlobalError() {
  const { error, setError } = React.useContext(ErrorContext);

  if (!error) return null;

  return (
    <div className="error-banner">
      {error}
      <button onClick={() => setError(null)}>Dismiss</button>
    </div>
  );
}

Usage

<ErrorProvider>
  <GlobalError />
  <App />
</ErrorProvider>

✔ Centralized UI
✔ Consistent messaging

🧠 Combining Error Boundaries + Global Errors

Best practice:

  • Error Boundaries → unexpected UI crashes
  • Global Error UI → API, auth, business errors

They solve different problems.

🧪 Handling Async Errors Correctly

Async errors must be handled manually.

async function loadData() {
  try {
    await fetchData();
  } catch (error) {
    setGlobalError(error.message);
  }
}

Never assume error boundaries will catch async issues.

🧠 Logging & Monitoring (Production-Grade)

In production:
❌ Console logs are not enough.

You must:

  • Capture error stack
  • Capture user context
  • Capture environment info

Logging Strategy Example

function logError(error, info) {
  sendToMonitoringService({
    message: error.message,
    stack: error.stack,
    info
  });
}

Used inside:

  • Error boundaries
  • Global API handlers

🚨 Common Global Error Handling Mistakes

❌ Handling Errors in Every Component

Leads to duplication.

❌ Showing Raw Error Messages

Security & UX issue.

❌ Ignoring Network Failures

Always plan for offline scenarios.

❌ Logging Only in Development

Production visibility is critical.

🎯 Best Practices (Senior-Level)

✅ Categorize error types
✅ Centralize API error handling
✅ Use error boundaries for UI safety
✅ Provide user-friendly messages
✅ Log errors with context
✅ Fail gracefully, not silently

❓ FAQs — Global Error Handling

🔹 Is global error handling mandatory?

Not mandatory, but essential for production apps.

🔹 Should I show every error to users?

No — some errors should be logged silently.

🔹 Can React Query handle errors globally?

Yes — with global error callbacks.

🔹 Is this asked in interviews?

Yes — especially for senior roles.

🧠 Quick Recap

✔ Error boundaries protect UI
✔ API errors must be centralized
✔ Global error context improves UX
✔ Async errors need manual handling
✔ Logging is essential in production

🎉 Conclusion

Global error handling is not about preventing errors —
it’s about controlling failure.

A well-designed React app:

  • Fails predictably
  • Informs users gracefully
  • Logs issues intelligently
  • Recovers when possible

This lesson completes SECTION 7 — Error Handling & Robust Apps, a critical milestone in building production-ready React applications 🛡️⚛️

👉 Next Lesson

Lesson 27 — Authentication Architecture in React

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