Developer forum

Forum » Integration » API UserByEmailOrUsername returns 400 for non-existing users

API UserByEmailOrUsername returns 400 for non-existing users

E-mail notifications
Jelle De Ridder (eWings)
Reply
Posted on 08/10/2025 14:58:47

Hi everyone,

While testing our integration with the UserByEmailOrUsername API, we noticed that a request with a non-existing email returns a 400 Bad Request, even though the query itself is technically valid.

Example:

GET /Admin/Api/UserByEmailOrUsername?userName=testuser@example.com

Response:

{
  "successful": false,
  "message": "Unable to load query parameters for query type: 'UserByEmailOrUsername'"
}

For an existing user, the same request returns 200 OK with the user model.

We would have expected a 200 OK with successful=false instead of a 400.

Is this an intentional design choice? If so, could you clarify the reasoning behind it?

Thanks in advance.

afbeelding.png

Replies

 
Nicolai Pedersen Dynamicweb Employee
Nicolai Pedersen
Posted on 08/10/2025 15:37:42
Reply

Well, our endpoint is very explicit on sending a 400 return. So it is a design decission made at that point. You could argue that a 200 is also an option.

Given the error message, the 400 return type is probably chosen since that particular return is coming if we end up with a null object. That can happen for 2 reasons - wrong query parameters or no result from that query. So you could say that those 2 scenarios should be separated and 400 is for invalid querystring keys and 200 with successful=false is for querystring values that do not correspond to any result.

This cannot be changed without bumping the version number of the endpoint - but we will keep it in mind.

BR Nicolai

 
Imar Spaanjaars Dynamicweb Employee
Imar Spaanjaars
Posted on 08/10/2025 15:47:24
Reply

>> and 200 with successful=false is for querystring values that do not correspond to any result.

Or a 404 NotFound?

Imar

 
Nicolai Pedersen Dynamicweb Employee
Nicolai Pedersen
Posted on 08/10/2025 16:12:41
Reply

404 would be more of the query does not exist... Or if you are asking for one thing, e.g. /product/{id} and that does not exist. But queries are a mix of searches after one item or a list of items. So 404 or 200 with a no results can both be accepted. And here an object is returned - it is not return with an empty body.

 
Imar Spaanjaars Dynamicweb Employee
Imar Spaanjaars
Posted on 08/10/2025 17:13:30
Reply

>> Or if you are asking for one thing, e.g. /product/{id} and that does not exist

Agreed. Didn't realize this was a broader search, and saw it as /users/{username} which would be a 404.

Imar

 

 

You must be logged in to post in the forum