Question

Custom 404 Page

Asked by: TheAussie2

Hi,
how hard can this be?
I have virtual servers, PHP, MySQL all running nicely so I thought Id creat a custom 404 page.
 dev server is called test
Http://test/index.shtml      works fine!
create  a simple "notfound.html"  page in root
basic .htacces  in root, one line

ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html     ----- ( tried notfound.html, ./notfound.html, http://test/notfoind html as well)

So in root "test" all three files live, but I still get the standard "File Not Found" error page from Firefox and IE. Is this rocket science?

thk in advance
Aussie

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Asked On
2006-04-06 at 19:05:12ID21805044
Tags

404

,

custom

,

page

Topic

Web Servers

Participating Experts
5
Points
200
Comments
20

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Answers

 

by: Abs_jaipurPosted on 2006-04-06 at 19:57:53ID: 16397555

Hi,

If you are using the IE then use the following configure to see actual error not friendly error.
   Internet explorer > Tool >Internet Options > Advanced > Turn off Show friendly HTTP error

 

by: Abs_jaipurPosted on 2006-04-06 at 20:00:15ID: 16397567

What exactly does the error log say?  What do the relevant section of
your .htaccess file say?

If it is a *db* file, as opposed to a text file, you may have
compiled Apache using a different *db* library than your old
server.

 

by: Abs_jaipurPosted on 2006-04-06 at 20:02:12ID: 16397578

ErrorDocument 404 /no-such-file.html

...then, when someone tries to access a non-existant file in that directory,
the "no-such-file.html" page will be displayed instead of the generic 404
error page.

Details on the Apache implementation are at:

  http://www.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#errordocument

 

by: Abs_jaipurPosted on 2006-04-06 at 20:05:51ID: 16397593

 

by: TheAussie2Posted on 2006-04-06 at 21:25:15ID: 16397837

Hi,
the error log is simply saying the file does not exist.... well I Know that much :)

[Fri Apr 07 13:53:51 2006] [notice] Parent: Created child process 3388
[Fri Apr 07 13:53:52 2006] [notice] Child 3388: Child process is running
[Fri Apr 07 13:53:52 2006] [notice] Child 3388: Acquired the start mutex.
[Fri Apr 07 13:53:52 2006] [notice] Child 3388: Starting 250 worker threads.
[Fri Apr 07 13:54:09 2006] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: D:/WEBS/test/dummyname.html

It appears I have the syntax correct. Perhaps .htaccess is not being read at all? I put AllowOverrride All in the file as a test. No luck.

Aussie

 

by: TheAussie2Posted on 2006-04-06 at 21:33:31ID: 16397868

FYI Here are the entries in httpd.conf

<Directory "D:/WEBS">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks +Includes
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AddOutputFilter INCLUDES;DEFLATE shtml
</Directory>
#
#
#

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@ifg.com
    DocumentRoot D:/WEBS/test
    ServerName test
   #ErrorLog logs/dummy-host.example.com-error_log
   #CustomLog logs/dummy-host.example.com-access_log common
</VirtualHost>

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2006-04-07 at 05:35:32ID: 16399784

> ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html

and the file can be found in D:/WEBS/test/notfound.html ?

 

by: TheAussie2Posted on 2006-04-07 at 21:24:25ID: 16406019

yes it can...
notfound.html
.htaccess
index.html
all in root (D:\WEBS\test)

access the server as normal (index.html) and type in a crap URL :(

Aussie

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2006-04-08 at 00:50:29ID: 16406352

> standard "File Not Found" error page from Firefox and IE.
what's the size of your notfound.html?
try to fill in text, let's say 500 bytes or so ...

 

by: TheAussie2Posted on 2006-04-08 at 02:20:23ID: 16406533

Here it is.....

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html>
<head>
      <title></title>
</head>

<body>
Sorry, no can do


</body>
</html>

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2006-04-08 at 07:19:45ID: 16407273

please fill in more and try again

 

by: periwinklePosted on 2006-04-08 at 10:14:43ID: 16408009

If the httpd.conf file has AllowOverride None, then the .htaccess file is being ignored.  You need to allow overrides in the httpd.conf.

 

by: sleep_furiouslyPosted on 2006-04-09 at 13:39:18ID: 16412883

When you say "I put AllowOverrride All in the file as a test. No luck." do you mean you put it in the .htaccess file or the httpd.conf file?  (Needs to go in a <Directory> section in httpd.conf)

BTW, if you don't want to allow all overrides, in particular, for ErrorDocument the override needed is FileInfo.

 

by: TheAussie2Posted on 2006-04-09 at 19:22:59ID: 16414090

ok troops......
notfound.html now reads
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
      <title>File not Found</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>
Sorry, no can do
</h2>
<h3>The page you are seeking has been moved <A href="Somewhere.com">Here</a>
</h3>
</body>
</html>

.htaccess
AllowOverride All
ErrorDocument 404  /notfound.html

httpd.conf
<Directory "D:/WEBS/test">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks +Includes
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    AddOutputFilter INCLUDES;DEFLATE shtml
</Directory>

If I change the httpd to AllowOverride All, I get
"Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request"

Perhaps it IS rocket science after all.

Aussie

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2006-04-10 at 00:14:05ID: 16415001

>     AllowOverride None
is invalid in .htaccess, remove it
is wrong in httpd.conf, use
      AllowOverride All
(then if you get it wortking change All to what is sufficient for you)

 

by: TheAussie2Posted on 2006-04-10 at 02:27:58ID: 16415591

Thank you for that!!..

hmmm..... I perhaps should have split the points with sleep_furiously, sorry.

Aussie

 

by: TheAussie2Posted on 2006-04-10 at 05:04:16ID: 16416427

bugger.... I seem to have stuffed that up. Thought I entered 100pts for you and 100 for sleep *grrrrrrrrrrr*

Aussie

 

by: periwinklePosted on 2006-04-10 at 06:05:40ID: 16416832

LOL, I had actually stated it first (but apparently not in a way that made it clear).  The good part is that you got it all fixed - congrats!

 

by: techpointePosted on 2007-12-19 at 10:56:14ID: 20501832

Your custom 404 error messege needs to be more than 512 bytes in length.  
Hint:  Use spaces.

M

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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