ActionError vs. ActionMessges Question

[Scott Updike]

I have a basic Struts application connected to a MySQL database. At a high level, I have methods in my error handling that captures SQLExceptions and based on the error code, I generate user-friendly error messages. I generate these friendly messages by creating ActionMessages and adding them to the ActionMessage object which is then added to ActionError object with the addErrors method.

My question is, in my catch block, I can access the MySQL error code, but not the message. Basically, if I pass the SQLException into my catch block as (SQLException ex), then ex.getErrorCode has a value but ex.getMessage (as well as ex.getLocalizedMessage) come up null. How do I access the actual message itself?

One other thing: in my html:errors tag on the resulting error page, the MySQL error message appears! Where does that come from? How do I access that message before my screen is generated?

Thanks,
Scott