How to make custom error pages work in ASP.NET MVC 4
asp.netasp.net Mvcasp.net Mvc-4asp.net Problem Overview
I want a custom error page shown for 500, 404 and 403. Here's what I have done:
-
Enabled custom errors in the web.config as follows:
<customErrors mode="On" defaultRedirect="~/Views/Shared/Error.cshtml"> <error statusCode="403" redirect="~/Views/Shared/UnauthorizedAccess.cshtml" /> <error statusCode="404" redirect="~/Views/Shared/FileNotFound.cshtml" /> </customErrors>
-
Registered
HandleErrorAttribute
as a global action filter in theFilterConfig
class as follows:public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters) { filters.Add(new CustomHandleErrorAttribute()); filters.Add(new AuthorizeAttribute()); }
-
Created a custom error page for each of the above messages. The default one for 500 was already available out of the box.
-
Declared in each custom error page view that the model for the page is
System.Web.Mvc.HandleErrorInfo
For 500, it shows the custom error page. For others, it doesn't.
Is there something I am missing?
It does look like this is not all there is to displaying custom errors as I read through the code in the OnException
method of the HandleErrorAttribute
class and it is handling only 500.
What do I have to do to handle other errors?
asp.net Solutions
Solution 1 - asp.net
My current setup (on MVC3, but I think it still applies) relies on having an ErrorController
, so I use:
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="On" defaultRedirect="~/Error">
<error redirect="~/Error/NotFound" statusCode="404" />
</customErrors>
</system.web>
And the controller contains the following:
public class ErrorController : Controller
{
public ViewResult Index()
{
return View("Error");
}
public ViewResult NotFound()
{
Response.StatusCode = 404; //you may want to set this to 200
return View("NotFound");
}
}
And the views just the way you implement them. I tend to add a bit of logic though, to show the stack trace and error information if the application is in debug mode. So Error.cshtml looks something like this:
@model System.Web.Mvc.HandleErrorInfo
@{
Layout = "_Layout.cshtml";
ViewBag.Title = "Error";
}
<div class="list-header clearfix">
<span>Error</span>
</div>
<div class="list-sfs-holder">
<div class="alert alert-error">
An unexpected error has occurred. Please contact the system administrator.
</div>
@if (Model != null && HttpContext.Current.IsDebuggingEnabled)
{
<div>
<p>
<b>Exception:</b> @Model.Exception.Message<br />
<b>Controller:</b> @Model.ControllerName<br />
<b>Action:</b> @Model.ActionName
</p>
<div style="overflow:scroll">
<pre>
@Model.Exception.StackTrace
</pre>
</div>
</div>
}
</div>
Solution 2 - asp.net
I've done pablo solution and I always had the error (MVC4)
> The view 'Error' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched location.
To get rid of this, remove the line
filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
in FilterConfig.cs
Solution 3 - asp.net
I do something that requires less coding than the other solutions posted.
First, in my web.config, I have the following:
<customErrors mode="On" defaultRedirect="~/ErrorPage/Oops">
<error redirect="~/ErrorPage/Oops/404" statusCode="404" />
<error redirect="~/ErrorPage/Oops/500" statusCode="500" />
</customErrors>
And the controller (/Controllers/ErrorPageController.cs) contains the following:
public class ErrorPageController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Oops(int id)
{
Response.StatusCode = id;
return View();
}
}
And finally, the view contains the following (stripped down for simplicity, but it can conta:
@{ ViewBag.Title = "Oops! Error Encountered"; }
<section id="Page">
<div class="col-xs-12 well">
<table cellspacing="5" cellpadding="3" style="background-color:#fff;width:100%;" class="table-responsive">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" align="left" id="tableProps">
<img width="25" height="33" src="~/Images/PageError.gif" id="pagerrorImg">
</td>
<td width="360" valign="middle" align="left" id="tableProps2">
<h1 style="COLOR: black; FONT: 13pt/15pt verdana" id="errortype"><span id="errorText">@Response.Status</span></h1>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="400" colspan="2" id="tablePropsWidth"><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">Possible causes:</font>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="400" colspan="2" id="tablePropsWidth2">
<font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana" id="LID1">
<hr>
<ul>
<li id="list1">
<span class="infotext">
<strong>Baptist explanation: </strong>There
must be sin in your life. Everyone else opened it fine.<br>
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="infotext">
<strong>Presbyterian explanation: </strong>It's
not God's will for you to open this link.<br>
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="infotext">
<strong> Word of Faith explanation:</strong>
You lack the faith to open this link. Your negative words have prevented
you from realizing this link's fulfillment.<br>
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="infotext">
<strong>Charismatic explanation: </strong>Thou
art loosed! Be commanded to OPEN!<br>
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="infotext">
<strong>Unitarian explanation:</strong> All
links are equal, so if this link doesn't work for you, feel free to
experiment with other links that might bring you joy and fulfillment.<br>
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="infotext">
<strong>Buddhist explanation:</strong> .........................<br>
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="infotext">
<strong>Episcopalian explanation:</strong>
Are you saying you have something against homosexuals?<br>
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="infotext">
<strong>Christian Science explanation: </strong>There
really is no link.<br>
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="infotext">
<strong>Atheist explanation: </strong>The only
reason you think this link exists is because you needed to invent it.<br>
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span class="infotext">
<strong>Church counselor's explanation:</strong>
And what did you feel when the link would not open?
</span>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<h2 style="font:8pt/11pt verdana; color:black" id="ietext">
<img width="16" height="16" align="top" src="~/Images/Search.gif">
HTTP @Response.StatusCode - @Response.StatusDescription <br>
</h2>
</font>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</section>
It's just as simple as that. It could be easily extended to offer more detailed error info, but ELMAH handles that for me & the statusCode & statusDescription is all that I usually need.
Solution 4 - asp.net
There seem to be a number of steps here jumbled together. I'll put forward what I did from scratch.
-
Create the
ErrorPage
controllerpublic class ErrorPageController : Controller { public ActionResult Index() { return View(); } public ActionResult Oops(int id) { Response.StatusCode = id; return View(); } }
-
Add views for these two actions (right click -> Add View). These should appear in a folder called ErrorPage.
-
Inside
App_Start
open upFilterConfig.cs
and comment out the error handling filter.public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters) { // Remove this filter because we want to handle errors ourselves via the ErrorPage controller //filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute()); }
-
Inside web.config add the following
<customerErrors>
entries, underSystem.Web
<customErrors mode="On" defaultRedirect="~/ErrorPage/Oops"> <error redirect="~/ErrorPage/Oops/404" statusCode="404" /> <error redirect="~/ErrorPage/Oops/500" statusCode="500" /> </customErrors>
-
Test (of course). Throw an unhandled exception in your code and see it go to the page with id 500, and then use a URL to a page that does not exist to see 404.
Solution 5 - asp.net
I would Recommend to use Global.asax.cs File.
protected void Application_Error(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var exception = Server.GetLastError();
if (exception is HttpUnhandledException)
{
Server.Transfer("~/Error.aspx");
}
if (exception != null)
{
Server.Transfer("~/Error.aspx");
}
try
{
// This is to stop a problem where we were seeing "gibberish" in the
// chrome and firefox browsers
HttpApplication app = sender as HttpApplication;
app.Response.Filter = null;
}
catch
{
}
}
Solution 6 - asp.net
Building on the answer posted by maxspan, I've put together a minimal sample project on GitHub showing all the working parts.
Basically, we just add an Application_Error
method to global.asax.cs to intercept the exception and give us an opportunity to redirect (or more correctly, transfer request) to a custom error page.
protected void Application_Error(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13905164/how-to-make-custom-error-pages-work-in-asp-net-mvc-4
// for additional context on use of this technique
var exception = Server.GetLastError();
if (exception != null)
{
// This would be a good place to log any relevant details about the exception.
// Since we are going to pass exception information to our error page via querystring,
// it will only be practical to issue a short message. Further detail would have to be logged somewhere.
// This will invoke our error page, passing the exception message via querystring parameter
// Note that we chose to use Server.TransferRequest, which is only supported in IIS 7 and above.
// As an alternative, Response.Redirect could be used instead.
// Server.Transfer does not work (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/320439 )
Server.TransferRequest("~/Error?Message=" + exception.Message);
}
}
Error Controller:
/// <summary>
/// This controller exists to provide the error page
/// </summary>
public class ErrorController : Controller
{
/// <summary>
/// This action represents the error page
/// </summary>
/// <param name="Message">Error message to be displayed (provided via querystring parameter - a design choice)</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public ActionResult Index(string Message)
{
// We choose to use the ViewBag to communicate the error message to the view
ViewBag.Message = Message;
return View();
}
}
Error page View:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Error</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>My Error</h2>
<p>@ViewBag.Message</p>
</body>
</html>
Nothing else is involved, other than disabling/removing filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute())
in FilterConfig.cs
public class FilterConfig
{
public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
{
//filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute()); // <== disable/remove
}
}
While very simple to implement, the one drawback I see in this approach is using querystring to deliver exception information to the target error page.
Solution 7 - asp.net
I had everything set up, but still couldn't see proper error pages for status code 500 on our staging server, despite the fact everything worked fine on local development servers.
I found this blog post from Rick Strahl that helped me.
I needed to add Response.TrySkipIisCustomErrors = true;
to my custom error handling code.
Solution 8 - asp.net
Here is my solution. Use [ExportModelStateToTempData] / [ImportModelStateFromTempData] is uncomfortable in my opinion.
~/Views/Home/Error.cshtml:
@{
ViewBag.Title = "Error";
Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}
<h2>Error</h2>
<hr/>
<div style="min-height: 400px;">
@Html.ValidationMessage("Error")
<br />
<br />
<button onclick="Error_goBack()" class="k-button">Go Back</button>
<script>
function Error_goBack() {
window.history.back()
}
</script>
</div>
~/Controllers/HomeController.sc:
public class HomeController : BaseController
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult Error()
{
return this.View();
}
...
}
~/Controllers/BaseController.sc:
public class BaseController : Controller
{
public BaseController() { }
protected override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
{
if (filterContext.Result is ViewResult)
{
if (filterContext.Controller.TempData.ContainsKey("Error"))
{
var modelState = filterContext.Controller.TempData["Error"] as ModelState;
filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState.Merge(new ModelStateDictionary() { new KeyValuePair<string, ModelState>("Error", modelState) });
filterContext.Controller.TempData.Remove("Error");
}
}
if ((filterContext.Result is RedirectResult) || (filterContext.Result is RedirectToRouteResult))
{
if (filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState.ContainsKey("Error"))
{
filterContext.Controller.TempData["Error"] = filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState["Error"];
}
}
base.OnActionExecuted(filterContext);
}
}
~/Controllers/MyController.sc:
public class MyController : BaseController
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
public ActionResult Details(int id)
{
if (id != 5)
{
ModelState.AddModelError("Error", "Specified row does not exist.");
return RedirectToAction("Error", "Home");
}
else
{
return View("Specified row exists.");
}
}
}
I wish you successful projects ;-)
Solution 9 - asp.net
You can get errors working correctly without hacking global.cs, messing with HandleErrorAttribute, doing Response.TrySkipIisCustomErrors, hooking up Application_Error, or whatever:
In system.web (just the usual, on/off)
<customErrors mode="On">
<error redirect="/error/401" statusCode="401" />
<error redirect="/error/500" statusCode="500" />
</customErrors>
and in system.webServer
<httpErrors existingResponse="PassThrough" />
Now things should behave as expected, and you can use your ErrorController to display whatever you need.
Solution 10 - asp.net
In web.config add this under system.webserver tag as below,
<system.webServer>
<httpErrors errorMode="Custom" existingResponse="Replace">
<remove statusCode="404"/>
<remove statusCode="500"/>
<error statusCode="404" responseMode="ExecuteURL" path="/Error/NotFound"/>
<error statusCode="500" responseMode="ExecuteURL"path="/Error/ErrorPage"/>
</httpErrors>
and add a controller as,
public class ErrorController : Controller
{
//
// GET: /Error/
[GET("/Error/NotFound")]
public ActionResult NotFound()
{
Response.StatusCode = 404;
return View();
}
[GET("/Error/ErrorPage")]
public ActionResult ErrorPage()
{
Response.StatusCode = 500;
return View();
}
}
and add their respected views, this will work definitely I guess for all.
This solution I found it from: Neptune Century
Solution 11 - asp.net
It seems i came late to the party, but you should better check this out too.
So in system.web
for caching up exceptions within the application such as return HttpNotFound()
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="RemoteOnly">
<error statusCode="404" redirect="/page-not-found" />
<error statusCode="500" redirect="/internal-server-error" />
</customErrors>
</system.web>
and in system.webServer
for catching up errors that were caught by IIS and did not made their way to the asp.net framework
<system.webServer>
<httpErrors errorMode="DetailedLocalOnly">
<remove statusCode="404"/>
<error statusCode="404" path="/page-not-found" responseMode="Redirect"/>
<remove statusCode="500"/>
<error statusCode="500" path="/internal-server-error" responseMode="Redirect"/>
</system.webServer>
In the last one if you worry about the client response then change the responseMode="Redirect"
to responseMode="File"
and serve a static html file, since this one will display a friendly page with an 200 response code.