Errors and suggested actions

WoAG Occupation Coding Service User Guide

Glossary of common errors, explanations and solutions

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Released
30/06/2025
Release date and time
30/06/2025 11:30am AEST

These codes help identify issues on both the client and server sides, allowing for troubleshooting and resolution of HTTP request problems.

 

 Error messageWhy this happened You should…
Common errors possible on all API calls
 Invalid request body
HTTP Status Code: 400		Something was wrong with your request body syntax. 

Example: special characters were included in your free text inputs.
 User is not authorized to access this resource with an explicit deny
HTTP Status Code: 403

You have either not authenticated or your authentication token has expired.

This error may also occur if there have been excessive authentication requests from others across your organisation.

This error may also occur for small batches that exceed the payload size limit of 8,192 characters

  • authenticate again if your token is over an hour old, or
  • review your authentication logic, and reuse your token between users and API calls (see Session token usage).
  • For small batch coding, check that the payload size is under 8,192 characters. We recommend small batch sizes of 34 records or less. 
 Limit Exceeded
HTTP Status Code: 429		You have made too many calls to the API. 
  • wait 24 hours before calling the API again, or
  • contact us to discuss increasing your request quota.
 Too Many Requests
HTTP Status Code: 429		You have made too many API calls in a short period of time.
  • space out your requests over a longer timeframe, and
  • consider using the asynchronous coding service if coding many records.
 Error performing request
HTTP Status Code: 500		This happens when something unexpected goes wrong on the server. 
In some instances, further context is provided.
  • retry after a short delay; report persistent issues to support.
 
Problems selecting model or topic
 The specified topic does not exist
HTTP Status Code: 404		No topics matched the provided topic parameter.
 The specified model does not exist
HTTP Status Code: 404		No models matched the provided model parameter. 

You’ll see this if the system can't locate the specified model - maybe due to a typo or outdated ID.
 Selected model does not match the input topic.
HTTP Status Code: 409		The given model GUID does not correspond to the specified coding topic. 
 
Errors on the get models endpoint
 No models found for topic
HTTP Status Code: 500		No models are available for the provided topic parameter. 
  • reach out to your ABS contact to investigate why no model is available.
 
Synchronous coding errors
 Malformed record found in request
HTTP Status Code: 400		The free text input did not match the expected format for the model. 
  • check what the expected format is for a given topic here.
 Batch input contained no records
HTTP Status Code: 400		You tried to code a small batch of records but the records array was empty.
  • check that you have provided at least one record to be coded, and
  • check that your request body is correctly formatted.
 There are record(s) outside the min or max char limit:
Record with index x has a total text length under 3 min
Record with index y has a total text length over 100 max
…
HTTP Status Code: 400		One or more records provided had too many or too few characters. 
 
Asynchronous coding errors
 User is not authorised to retrieve operation GUID
HTTP Status Code: 401		The specified operation does not belong to the current user.

You may have authenticated with the wrong user or specified the wrong operation_id.
  • authenticate again and check you have the right credentials, and
  • confirm your operation id.
 Unable to retrieve operation for given id
HTTP Status Code: 404		No operations were found to match the given operation_id.
This is most likely due to a typo.
  • confirm the operation ID is correct.
  • if you have lost your operation ID, you will have to create a new operation.

See more information on HTTP errors at HTTP response status codes - HTTP | MDN.