[CMS] VB 4.1.5 with Mod Rewrite Friendly URLs - error handling

[gajj]

I'm having big probs trying to get vb to use a custom 404 page and to react uniformly to missing pages.

Here is my htaccess:

ErrorDocument 404 /404.html

RewriteEngine on

<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>
AuthName xxxxx.com
AuthUserFile /home/xxxxx/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /home/xxxxx/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp

# If you are having problems or are using VirtualDocumentRoot, uncomment this line and set it to your vBulletin directory.
# RewriteBase /forum/

# If you are having problems with the rewrite from content/ to content.php, uncomment this line to turn MultiViews off.
# Options -MultiViews

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]

# Forum
RewriteRule ^threads/.* showthread.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^forums/.* forumdisplay.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^members/.* member.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^blogs/.* blog.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^entries/.* entry.php [QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]

# MVC
RewriteRule ^(?:(.*?)(?:/|$))(.*|$)$ $1.php?r=$2 [QSA] 

I have a custom 404.html page at the location specified in htaccess.

Examples of the problem I'm having (with htaccess as above):

There is nothing at http://www.mydomain.com/content/ffr so trying to load that address should produce a 404. However, I get the following from vb:

'The page that you have requested was not found. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator'. If I check the HTTP header status on that link it returns a '200 OK' and not a 404.

There is nothing at http://www.xxxxx.com/ght.php but calling that page produces a 500 internal server error as opposed to my custom 404 page.

If I remove the last line in my htaccess (the MVC rule) I get the following result for the two links above:

first link gives the same result, second link opens my custom error page 404.html (HTTP header code for the link is 404).

If I now go to my CMS page I get a 404 when I click on a section title and to fix that I obviously need to reinstate the MVC rule in htaccess which of course sends me neatly back to square one...

I'd really appreciate some assistance with this.

Thanks

[gajj]

If someone can help with this please give me a shout. Ta!

[Wayne Luke]

You would need custom coding within vBulletin. As isn't technically returning a 404 error to the server. It is returning is own error page and a 200 OK status.

[gajj]

Hi,

Erm... I have a standard vb 4.1.5 installation and I'm using the htaccess shipped with vb 4.1.5 (with a couple of additions which are not the cause of the current problem). Why do I need 'custom coding' to get vb to work as it should? Also, you have only mentioned one of the errors.

Just to recap:

with the above htaccess is in use and mod rewrite friendly urls selected.

1. If I got to the non-existent url http://www.xxxx.com/content/ffr I see the following: 'The page that you have requested was not found. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator'. If I check the HTTP header status on that link it returns a '200 OK' and not a 404.

2. If I got to the non-existent url http://www.xxxx.com/ght.php I see the 500 internal server error page as opposed to my custom 404 page.


If I remove the last line in my htaccess (the MVC rule) I get the following result for those same two links:

1. Same result

2. My 404.html page opens and the correct HTTP header is shown. There is now an additional problem: If I now go to my CMS page I get a 404 when I click on a section title. I can fix that by reinstating the MVC rule in htaccess but of course that sends me neatly back to square one...

I hope that is clearer.

[Wayne Luke]

vBulletin is designed to show its own error page if it can't find a route to a requested URL. It is designed to send a 200 OK message to the server because it handled the error internally. From your description this is how it works. You want it instead to show a custom page and send a 404 error to the server if it can't find a page. That needs custom coding.

In order to override vBulletin's default behavior and show your 404 error page as well as have the content manager work properly, you need custom coding.

[gajj]

Thanks Wayne. I decided to go for the vB advanced friendly urls for now. Much less hassle and my custom 404 works