Advice on Try/Catch handling

[cemerson]

Could you advise on how you'd propose users of this library handle errors in API calls with try/catch blocks?

For example - I'd rather not have to use the RegistrationExists() call before calling the GetLaunchHistory() to avoid making 2 API calls instead of one. So, if I call GetLaunchHistory and the registrationId I use is not found/invalid, I'd rather it fall into the try/catch and just keep moving on. Would you advise for or against this approach?

Here's a snippet of how I might try altering the GetLaunchHistory call - is this a bad idea or ok with you?

    public List<LaunchInfo> GetLaunchHistory(string registrationId)
    {
        try {            
            ServiceRequest request = new ServiceRequest(configuration);
            request.Parameters.Add("regid", registrationId);
            XmlDocument response = request.CallService("rustici.registration.getLaunchHistory");
            XmlElement launchHistory = ((XmlElement)response.GetElementsByTagName("launchhistory")[0]);
            return LaunchInfo.ConvertToLaunchInfoList(launchHistory);    
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            // error! just return an empty list?
            return new List<LaunchInfo>();
        }

    } 

Related API calls:

• RegistrationExists()
• GetLaunchHistory()