More consistent handling of error responses

To make the API behave more consistently, error responses from websites are now handled the same way, whatever the site sends back.

Before, the result depended on whether the site sent a page with its error. With ignore_host_errors=true, an error page with content returned a screenshot, but an error status with an empty response, for example, a 429 from a rate limiter, failed with the internal_application_error error.

What changed

• With ignore_host_errors=true, every error response now returns a screenshot. If the response is empty, you get a screenshot of the browser’s own error page, for example, “This page isn’t working” with “HTTP ERROR 429”. Like any other screenshot of an error page, it counts toward your quota.
• Without ignore_host_errors, every error response returns the host_returned_error error with the site’s status in returned_status_code. This now also applies when the page navigates to an error response by itself after it loads, which failed with an internal error before.
• Request logs now show the site’s status for every error response, including screenshots of error pages.
• Improved: metadata_http_response_status_code now returns the site’s status code even when you don’t also request metadata_http_response_headers.

If you don’t need screenshots of error pages, keep ignore_host_errors off. The API then returns the error, and failed requests don’t count toward your quota.

If you have any questions, please contact support@screenshotone.com.