Page questions: 404, 401, etc.

[Jonathan]

Hello all, I'm setting up a new site and using a trick from David here,
and am wondering what the various number codes mean. A 404 page is
error, but beyond that I'm kinda 404, 401, 403, etc...?

Basically looking for a general rundown to which I should include on
my "Error.php" document and what it would be used for. Thanks,
- J

EDIT: Also would I apply it same as 404? "ErrorDocument ###" in .htaccess file?

[AndrewT]

Hello all, I'm setting up a new site and using a trick from David here,
and am wondering what the various number codes mean. A 404 page is
error, but beyond that I'm kinda 404, 401, 403, etc...?

Basically looking for a general rundown to which I should include on
my "Error.php" document and what it would be used for. Thanks,
- J

EDIT: Also would I apply it same as 404? "ErrorDocument ###" in .htaccess file?

http://www.wats.ca/resources/httperrorcodes/24

[sdjl]

The ones i use are 404, 403, 401, 500.
Get the details from the link that Andrew provided

Yes, you do just add a new line with the relevant code in place of 404 in my example.

David

[Jonathan]

Thanks for the link Andrew; one question is, seeing so many 403s and 401s,
could one simply use "ErrorDocument 403 /error.php?id=403", for example, that
would cover all 403.# errors mentioned on the link Andrew provided?

[Buddha]

You may also take advantage of these (possible) $_SERVER[] variables:

REDIRECT_HTTP_ACCEPT=*/*, image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg
REDIRECT_HTTP_USER_AGENT=Mozilla/1.1b2 (X11; I; HP-UX A.09.05 9000/712)
REDIRECT_PATH=.:/bin:/usr/local/bin:/etc
REDIRECT_QUERY_STRING=
REDIRECT_REMOTE_ADDR=121.345.78.123
REDIRECT_REMOTE_HOST=ooh.ahhh.com
REDIRECT_SERVER_NAME=crash.bang.edu
REDIRECT_SERVER_PORT=80
REDIRECT_SERVER_SOFTWARE=Apache/0.8.15
REDIRECT_URL=/cgi-bin/buggy.pl

from: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/custom-error.html

You need to check and see if they are available. Their availability dependents on weather you use a external redirect or not. Well AFAIK anyway.

[sdjl]

Thanks for the link Andrew; one question is, seeing so many 403s and 401s,
could one simply use "ErrorDocument 403 /error.php?id=403", for example, that
would cover all 403.# errors mentioned on the link Andrew provided?

Yes, it will cover those "sub" 403 errors. Although i'm not too sure that you'll get the .# part to the error so you'll just have to use a generic 403 error.

David

[Jonathan]

Thanks for the replies all- Budda, LOL that stuff looks like
voodo to me or ruskie maybe not sure, its like a foreign language

I'll stick to simple stuff for now

[sdjl]

Those variables are just ways of getting data back to yourself, or your user, about the error. They're not vital for a basic error document.
The main ones i use are $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] and $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'].

The HTTP_HOST one i use to get the www.domain.com part of the domain name. (As i use dynamic subdomains, this returns whatever subdomain URL the user requested.)
I use the REQUEST_URI variable to get the page the user tried to visit. I use REQUEST_URI over PHP_SELF as when you use mod_rewrite to change URL's underneath PHP_SELF will show the actual URL that mod_rewrite is writing to.

Wow, did i confuse things more!!

David

[Buddha]

Wow, did i confuse things more!!

Ooo! Ooo! I want to help too!

Could use $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] to find a page that might interest the user too for 404's.

Say they're looking for: \article\Abit_KV8_Pro.php

You could send them to something like \article\404.php or \search.php?q=Abit+KV8+Pro.

Think of the possibilities!

[Jonathan]

Hmm.. so for a 404 I could use say $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] to get
the exact URL (would it give absolute URL even w/ mod_rewrite?) and
have a form sitting there ready for the person to simply hit "enter" and send a error report to me?

[sdjl]

$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] Would be better jonathan.
It gives you all the parameters that were passed to the URL too, which you may, or may not, want to use

David