0%

Error Pages ID: DBT-ODO-EP

Bad things happen on good sites. Sometimes it's not your fault, but you can still turn a bad experience into a good one with a helpful (or even humorous) error page. Marketpath CMS provides Error Pages to handle these unexpected issues.

Standard Fields

Marketpath CMS Error Pages have the following default fields.

  • Internal Name
  • Title
  • Folder
  • Error Code
  • URL Filter
  • Content
  • Has Page

Error Code is a field to specify an HTTP error code (e.g. 404, 500, etc) or a catch all "0". 

URL Filter allows errors codes for different areas of your website with specific paths.

Error Codes

Marketpath CMS allows you to catch the following error types.

  • 404 Not Found -  this is typically the most common error found on sites. This error occurs when a user attempts to access a page that does not exist.
     
  • 401 Unauthorized - this error occurs when a user attempts to access a "protected" page without valid credentials. Users will not see this error on Marketpath CMS sites at the moment, but the day is coming when you will be able to create protected pages that users will have to log in to access, and when that day comes having a 401 page may help to explain why they can't get where they thought they were going.
     
  • 403 Forbidden - similar to the 401 error, this is an authorization error, but where the 401 error tells you that you have to log in, the 403 error tells you that although you are currently logged in you still have insufficient permissions to access the requested resource. A 403 error page is likely to become helpful at roughly the same time as the 401 error page.
     
  • 400 Bad Request - this error should be less common. This is a bit of a catch-all for bad http requests. It often does not tell you exactly why your request is bad - it could be due to a large variety of reasons. A couple common examples of when a 400 error page might be shown are when you request an invalid resource from the API, or when you attempt to submit a form to an invalid URL.
     
  • 500 Internal Server Error - this should be the least common error of all - or at least we at Marketpath hope so. Nevertheless, this error may occasionally be displayed - particularly during development when the developer inadvertently attempts to do something invalid. Having a 500 error page is a friendly way of saying, "Oops. We made a mistake."
     
  • 0 Catchall - this is simply our shortcut for creating an error page that covers any not-previously covered error codes. Instead of having to define a separate error page for each possible error code, you can create one page that may be served for any of those error types.

Regex Filtering

In addition to creating a separate error page for each error code, we also enable you to create "filters" for your error pages. For instance, if all of your blog posts use the common "/blog" URL prefix, you might create a blog-specific error page that is displayed for any URL starting with "/blog". Or, if you have multiple domains on your site, you may create a separate error page for each domain that reflects the messaging on that specific domain instead of displaying the same error page on each.

The bottom line is that you should create at least one error page early in your development process - and may want to create a series of error pages to capitalize on your users' misfortune and turn it into positive experience instead.
        



Feedback?

Please fill out the form below with your feedback or any questions you may have after working through the "Error Pages" lesson.

Your Name
Email 
Feedback / Questions