Custom Error Pages with PHP

On a Windows IIS server, you can control whether PHP errors are returned to the browser or not. But if you tell IIS not to send PHP errors to the browser, the user will literally get a blank white page when their is an error. To avoid that, you have to configure a custom error page.

On a Windows IIS web server, you have to edit the web.config file. You have to add the following section:

</httpErrors>

The error.php page consists of the following:

<?php

$page_redirected_from = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; // this is especially useful with error 404 to indicate the missing page.

$server_url = "http://" . $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"] . "/";

$redirect_url = $_SERVER["REDIRECT_URL"];

$redirect_url_array = parse_url($redirect_url);

$end_of_path = strrchr($redirect_url_array["path"], "/");

switch(getenv("REDIRECT_STATUS"))

{

# "400 - Bad Request"

case 400:

$error_code = "400 - Bad Request";

$explanation = "The syntax of the URL submitted by your browser could not be understood. Please verify the address and try again.";

$redirect_to = "";

break;

# "401 - Unauthorized"

case 401:

$error_code = "401 - Unauthorized";

$explanation = "This section requires a password or is otherwise protected. If you feel you have reached this page in error, please return to the login page and try again, or contact the webmaster if you continue to have problems.";

$redirect_to = "";

break;

# "403 - Forbidden"

case 403:

$error_code = "403 - Forbidden";

$redirect_to = "";

break;

# "404 - Not Found"

case 404:

$error_code = "404 - Not Found";

$explanation = "The requested resource '" . $page_redirected_from . "' could not be found on this server. Please verify the address and try again.";

$redirect_to = $server_url . "wiki" . $end_of_path;

break;

# "500 - Internal Server Error"

case 500:

$error_code = "500 - Internal Server Error";

$explanation = "The server experienced an unexpected error. Please verify the address and try again.";

$redirect_to = "";

break;

}

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"

"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<head>

<?php

if ($redirect_to != "")

{

<?php

}

<title>Page not found: <?php print ($redirect_to); ?></title>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Error Code <?php print ($error_code); ?></h1>

The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_resource_locator">URL</a> you requested was not found. <?PHP echo($explanation); ?>

Did you mean to type <a href="<?php print ($redirect_to); ?>"><?php print ($redirect_to); ?></a>? You will be automatically redirected there in five seconds.

You may also want to try starting from the home page: <a href="<?php print ($server_url); ?>"><?php print ($server_url); ?></a>

<hr />

A project of <a href="<?php print ($server_url); ?>"><?php print ($server_url); ?></a>.

</body>

</html>