Suppressing stack trace when catching exception - exception

Question

I have a short 2 step Spring Batch job that reads from an xml rest service call using StaxEventItemReader in Strict mode. I want it in strict mode because without the ability to connect to the rest service, there is no reason to continue. I want to catch the exception and exit gracefully with a custom message, not with a stack trace.
I'm able to catch the exception using a StepExecutionListener with afterStep() method checking the failures (stepExecution.getFailureExceptions()), but the stack trace is still being output. I'm getting my custom message (13:05:32,981 in the STS Output below) plus the stack trace. When I used the ItemReaderListener with onError method the onError method is not called, I'm guessing because it is an initialization exception not a read error.
What is the best method for capturing the failed to initialize reader exception and suppress the stack trace from the output?
SpringBatch Job:
<batch:job id="randomSends2NG">
<batch:step id="getStations" next="generateAndSend">
<batch:tasklet>
<batch:chunk reader="getStationsFromNG_RestXML"
processor="idExtractor"
writer="stationsWriter"
commit-interval="1">
</batch:chunk>
<batch:listeners>
<batch:listener ref="noStationsStopListener" />
</batch:listeners>
</batch:tasklet>
</batch:step>
<batch:step id="generateAndSend">
<batch:tasklet>
<batch:chunk reader="readStationIdsList"
processor="createRandomRequests"
writer="ngBroadcasterService"
commit-interval="400">
</batch:chunk>
</batch:tasklet>
</batch:step>
</batch:job>
STS output with stack trace:
13:05:30,479 [main] INFO SimpleJobLauncher - No TaskExecutor has been set, defaulting to synchronous executor.
13:05:30,776 [main] INFO DepartmentSendCountsNoOpReader - constructing stationSendCountsReader
LightYellow color:43
13:05:31,368 [main] INFO ProcessStatisticsTasklet - constructor...
13:05:31,525 [main] INFO RequestsListReader - constructing requestsListReader
13:05:31,588 [main] INFO Jaxb2Marshaller - Creating JAXBContext with classes to be bound [class com.pevco.pevcotubesystem.StationConfig]
13:05:31,886 [main] INFO SimpleJobLauncher - Job: [FlowJob: [name=randomSends2NG]] launched with the following parameters: [{hostNameOrIP=192.168.100.10:8383}]
13:05:31,902 [main] INFO SimpleStepHandler - Executing step: [getStations]
13:05:32,981 [main] ERROR AbstractStep - Encountered an error executing step getStations in job randomSends2NG
org.springframework.batch.item.ItemStreamException: Failed to initialize the reader
at org.springframework.batch.item.support.AbstractItemCountingItemStreamItemReader.open(AbstractItemCountingItemStreamItemReader.java:147)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
at org.springframework.aop.support.AopUtils.invokeJoinpointUsingReflection(AopUtils.java:307)
at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.invokeJoinpoint(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:183)
at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:150)
at org.springframework.aop.support.DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor.doProceed(DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor.java:131)
at org.springframework.aop.support.DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor.invoke(DelegatingIntroductionInterceptor.java:119)
at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:172)
at org.springframework.aop.framework.JdkDynamicAopProxy.invoke(JdkDynamicAopProxy.java:202)
at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy8.open(Unknown Source)
at org.springframework.batch.item.support.CompositeItemStream.open(CompositeItemStream.java:96)
at org.springframework.batch.core.step.tasklet.TaskletStep.open(TaskletStep.java:310)
at org.springframework.batch.core.step.AbstractStep.execute(AbstractStep.java:195)
at org.springframework.batch.core.job.SimpleStepHandler.handleStep(SimpleStepHandler.java:148)
at org.springframework.batch.core.job.flow.JobFlowExecutor.executeStep(JobFlowExecutor.java:64)
at org.springframework.batch.core.job.flow.support.state.StepState.handle(StepState.java:67)
at org.springframework.batch.core.job.flow.support.SimpleFlow.resume(SimpleFlow.java:165)
at org.springframework.batch.core.job.flow.support.SimpleFlow.start(SimpleFlow.java:144)
at org.springframework.batch.core.job.flow.FlowJob.doExecute(FlowJob.java:134)
at org.springframework.batch.core.job.AbstractJob.execute(AbstractJob.java:304)
at org.springframework.batch.core.launch.support.SimpleJobLauncher$1.run(SimpleJobLauncher.java:135)
at org.springframework.core.task.SyncTaskExecutor.execute(SyncTaskExecutor.java:50)
at org.springframework.batch.core.launch.support.SimpleJobLauncher.run(SimpleJobLauncher.java:128)
at org.springframework.batch.core.launch.support.CommandLineJobRunner.start(CommandLineJobRunner.java:362)
at org.springframework.batch.core.launch.support.CommandLineJobRunner.main(CommandLineJobRunner.java:590)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Input resource must exist (reader is in 'strict' mode)
at org.springframework.batch.item.xml.StaxEventItemReader.doOpen(StaxEventItemReader.java:195)
at org.springframework.batch.item.support.AbstractItemCountingItemStreamItemReader.open(AbstractItemCountingItemStreamItemReader.java:144)
... 27 more
13:05:32,981 [main] ERROR NoStationsStopListener - Not able to get stations list from NG. Check that NG is running
13:05:32,998 [main] INFO SimpleJobLauncher - Job: [FlowJob: [name=randomSends2NG]] completed with the following parameters: [{hostNameOrIP=192.168.100.10:8383}] and the following status: [FAILED]
13:05:32,998 [main] INFO ClassPathXmlApplicationContext - Closing org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext#4f4a7090: startup date [Wed Jul 01 13:05:29 EDT 2015]; root of context hierarchy

Answer 1

When facing this problem probably the best solution is to check for REST service as soon as possible because "without the ability to connect to the rest service, there is no reason to continue [...] and exit gracefully with a custom message".
Before first step use a JobExecutionDecider where you check for REST availability and continue or end your job according to service presence/absence.