diff --git a/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/ApiController.php b/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/ApiController.php
index 391045b7af1d4ba383919bd78d4899c744f8ce0d..9d7d795ca9d8419f134e1af08bfe00b0dbe40605 100644
--- a/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/ApiController.php
+++ b/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/ApiController.php
@@ -108,6 +108,12 @@ class ApiController extends \VuFind\Controller\AbstractBase
         foreach ($this->apiControllers as $controller) {
             $api = $controller->getSwaggerSpecFragment();
             $specs = json_decode($api, true);
+            if (null === $specs) {
+                throw new \Exception(
+                    'Could not parse Swagger spec fragment of '
+                    . get_class($controller)
+                );
+            }
             foreach ($specs as $key => $spec) {
                 if (isset($results[$key])) {
                     $results[$key] = array_merge($results[$key], $spec);
diff --git a/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/ApiInterface.php b/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/ApiInterface.php
index ec71fb4d6aa2e3566956562f82dce12292fcc870..37b57e267628c14029331f9548b947979d2c6710 100644
--- a/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/ApiInterface.php
+++ b/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/ApiInterface.php
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ interface ApiInterface
      * Get Swagger specification JSON fragment for services provided by the
      * controller
      *
-     * @return \Zend\Http\Response
+     * @return string
      */
     public function getSwaggerSpecFragment();
 }
diff --git a/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/SearchApiController.php b/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/SearchApiController.php
index 916971975337c954624f7ef83b6325165017300b..e54cb7d03955201811f7a80544628168ba48be69 100644
--- a/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/SearchApiController.php
+++ b/module/VuFindApi/src/VuFindApi/Controller/SearchApiController.php
@@ -222,8 +222,7 @@ class SearchApiController extends \VuFind\Controller\AbstractSearch
 
         $this->determineOutputMode();
 
-        if ($result = $this->isAccessDenied($this->searchAccessPermission)
-        ) {
+        if ($result = $this->isAccessDenied($this->searchAccessPermission)) {
             return $result;
         }