[thelist] Designing ErrorDocs

[j.d. welch]

On Tuesday, December 31, 2002, at 08:47  AM, Kevin wrote:

> Does anyone know where I can find the default error pages either
> online on
> in the apache installation.

here's a (long, dry) list of what the status codes mean:

http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html

in my distribution of apache 2 (which i don't acutally use...), there's
an /errors/ directory which has the text of each error response. i
don't believe there's a similar way to look at them in apache 1.3.x...

i guess you want to see what the default text is to base you're nifty
custom message off of?

> Also, has anyone got any tips on what you should put in your errordocs.
>
> Search, link home etc...

like ben said, yes.  on one site, i have a google sitesearch form,
which gets included on most error pages. on another, i list some
popular pages in a "did you want?" kind of context, etc.  automatic
redirection is a good idea if you're moving a bunch of content
somewhere, etc.

a decent short article on making decent error pages:
http://www.devarticles.com/art/1/124

some interesting (mostly humorous) 404 pages:
http://www.plinko.net/404/

-jd

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    J.D. Welch			|    so.there at showtunepink.com
    graphic designer    	|    http://www.showtunepink.com
    web developer       	|    https://kitschparade.ath.cx
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