Configuring a timeout works correctly, but raises a `Plaid::ApiError` instead of some kind of timeout error

[ctlevi]

Version 13 and before allowed us to set a timeout for the client, and a Faraday::TimeoutError was raised. But in the latest version, 15.6.0, a Plaid::ApiError is raised and all the fields are null. So I can't really tell if it is a timeout error, or a Plaid error.

I would expect the timeout error that is raised to continue to be a Faraday::TimeoutError. Or at least for the Plaid::ApiError to say that it is a client imposed timeout error.

How to reproduce:

• Configure the client with a 1 second timeout: api_client.connection.options[:timeout] = 1
• Call an API that takes longer than 1 second. I used the institutions API with a large count
• A Plaid::ApiError with all nil fields is raised

[ctlevi]

Here is where the bug is happening:

• Here you catch the Faraday::TimeoutError and convert it an ApiError with a message of 'Connection timed out': https://github.com/plaid/plaid-ruby/blob/a23901242cba35354111226ed26c85b68c698211/lib/plaid/api_client.rb#L86-L88
• Unfortunately, that message cannot be accessed for programatic use (nor would I want to, since it is a basic string message) because the initializer gets into this branch. You would think this would set the message of the error correctly, but it will not because ApiError overrides the message method. Since @message is nil because StandardError's constructor will not set that class property, we get the fallback message of "Error message: the server returns an error".

Is there any reason that you aren't just letting the Faraday::TimeoutError be raised? I would prefer to deal with that.

[phoenixy1]

cc: @vorpus

[Maimer]

Just ran into this same issue today when upgrading the version of the plaid gem. I don't believe that Faraday::TimeoutError should be raised in this case as that is an internal concern of this gem (@ctlevi). It seems like there should potentially another error class in this gem like ApiTimeoutError that would be for this case. In the meantime I had to create a patch for this gem in order to do string comparison with the message of Connection timed out.

module PlaidApiErrorPatch
  def initialize(arg = nil)
    arg.is_a?(String) ? super(message: arg) : super(arg)
  end
end

Plaid::ApiError.prepend(PlaidApiErrorPatch)

Using this patch allows the message to be set correctly so that this will work:

[1] pry(main)> error = Plaid::ApiError.new('Connection timed out')
=> #<Plaid::ApiError: Connection timed out>
[2] pry(main)> error.message
=> "Connection timed out"

[ghernandez-plaid]

Hi @Maimer ! I hope all is well. My name is Gilberto and I’m on the Developer Relations team at Plaid. Our team is interested in expanding our Plaid community and we’re conducting a bit of research to learn more about how devs engage with us.

I was wondering if you'd be interested in participating in a 30 minute research session with me and a member of our research team? You would be compensated with a gift card for your time. If you’re interested, let me know and I can send over the Calendly invite so we can schedule some time (we could switch to email, Twitter DM, etc., for communication). Thanks! (Also, @ctlevi – the invite is also open to you as well in case you're interested 🙂 )

[phoenixy1]

@otherchen Any ideas on this one? Do you think we should file an issue on the internal Jira?

[otherchen]

Yeah, I think what @Maimer suggested - introducing a new timeout error type - seems like the right path forward! I'll create a JIRA to track this internally.

[kyledcline]

Is this issue resolved in later versions of the gem?

[phoenixy1]

@kyledcline unfortunately I don't believe it's been resolved.

[Maimer]

@kyledcline @phoenixy1 It hasn't been fixed in regards to introducing a new timeout error, but at least the string error message is preserved as of version 24.3 in this PR: https://github.com/plaid/plaid-ruby/pull/482, specifically this line: https://github.com/plaid/plaid-ruby/blob/master/lib/plaid/api_error.rb#L35. So if you were using the patch I was using earlier you no longer need it if you are using version 24.3 or newer:

[1] pry(main)> require 'plaid'
=> true
[2] pry(main)> error = Plaid::ApiError.new('Connection timed out')
=> #<Plaid::ApiError: Connection timed out>
[3] pry(main)> error.message
=> "Connection timed out"
[4] pry(main)> Plaid::VERSION
=> "24.3.0"

[phoenixy1]

This is now resolved in the latest ruby client library. See https://github.com/plaid/plaid-ruby/pull/483