details of success and error responses in rest api - json

Question

i am writing a rest api in node js and using mssql as my db. I have dilemma regarding the details of success and error responses that the api should return as per rest guidelines. For example if there is an error for key constraints while doing db operations, should the error message be like this
{
"error": {
"code": 500,
"message": "Internal Server Error"
}
}
Or does it needs to be more specific about the error details like the table details. Is it right to give away the internal details through the errors? Does status code needs to be part of the json object? Also, whether the success messages should be more general like "Record created successfully" with 200 code or more specific?

Answer 1

Always think in your final user. If you return the full error message, it will help him? Maybe the user did a wrong request that caused the internal fail. If not, turn it clear and log the error!
For example, when user gets this response, he should repeat the request? Or it's server fault and should wait for fix? So, I suggest something like:
{
"error": {
"code": 1000,
"href": 'http://mywikiapage.com/errors/1000',
"message": "Sorry, we're experiencing some issues. Try again later."
}
}
Note that error code has changed. Its new "custom" code could refer to a wiki page where it gives more details about the error itself. Furthermore, user always can get the 500 result code from HTTP response.
I also would like to suggest the reading of this other SO question