Comments on: 404 Error Handling

By: Yoshi

Yoshi — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I use a similar approach. I used to also have it record to a db as well, but I dropped that. now I settle for just an email, with a referer link (so i know if it's from a search engine, etc), and the ip address of the visitor (so i can determine if it's a bot). I could send you my code if you'd like.

In the .htaccess, it's exactly like they say if you're running apache:

ErrorDocument 404 /404.php

(or whatever you name your 404 file)

By: Paul Roub

Paul Roub — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Of course, you can extract a lot of this from your logs if you have referrer logging turned on. However, for ease of reporting and juggling, on one of my higher-traffic sites I keep a simple not-found table:

notfound_id, int, primary key, auto-increment
notfound_date, timestamp
notfound_url, varchar(255)
notfound_referer, varchar(255)
notfound_ip, varchar(25)
notfound_useragent, varchar(255)

And my 404.php page writes to it as follows:

header("Status: 404 Not Found");

$url = $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
$referer = $_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"];
$clientip = $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"];
$useragent = $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"];

$sql = 'insert into notfound (notfound_url, notfound_referer, notfound_ip, notfound_useragent) values ( ' .
"'" . mysql_escape_string($url) . "', " .
"'" . mysql_escape_string($referer) . "', " .
"'" . mysql_escape_string($clientip) . "', " .
"'" . mysql_escape_string($useragent) . "')";

// assuming an existing mysql connection
mysql_query($sql, $dbconn);

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

You see - this is where I think something might be screwed up in the way I'm handling 404 errors to begin with. For me - on my 404 page - $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] will BE the 404 page. Like it "forgets" what was being asked for - and only remembers the current page - which IS the 404 page…

But as far as I know - I have the 404 page pointed correctly in my .htaccess… I must be overlooking something!

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

A HA!!
The problem was that I had the .htaccess line like this:

ErrorDocument 404 http://www.mysite.com/404.php

instead of

ErrorDocument 404 /404.php

Strange. By putting the "full web path" in there - it loses what was "being asked for"… Now maybe I"ll try that email script again…

By: Yoshi

Yoshi — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Wow, I've never encountered that, but I would wager to say it's just how your web server is setup. This is good to know!

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

WOAH! Well… the good news is that it works… the bad news is that the 404 page gets a lot more traffic than I realized. LOL!! I think I have to make my own script that keeps a list of "missing pages" - but only one entry per missing page (ie. no duplicates). Perhaps finally after a long hiatus, this is a chance for me to post a home-grown script… should be simple enough.