How to make custom error pages work in ASP.NET MVC

Question

I want a custom error page shown for 500, 404 and 403. Here's what I have done:

1. Enabled custom errors in the web.config as follows:

   <customErrors mode="On" 
                 defaultRedirect="~/Views/Shared/Error.cshtml">
   
       <error statusCode="403" 
              redirect="~/Views/Shared/UnauthorizedAccess.cshtml" />
   
       <error statusCode="404" 
              redirect="~/Views/Shared/FileNotFound.cshtml" />
   
   </customErrors>
   

2. Registered HandleErrorAttribute as a global action filter in the FilterConfig class as follows:

   public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
   {
       filters.Add(new CustomHandleErrorAttribute());
       filters.Add(new AuthorizeAttribute());
   }
   

3. Created a custom error page for each of the above messages. The default one for 500 was already available out of the box.

4. Declared in each custom error page view that the model for the page is System.Web.Mvc.HandleErrorInfo

For 500, it shows the custom error page. For others, it doesn't.

Is there something I am missing?

It does look like this is not all there is to displaying custom errors as I read through the code in the OnException method of the HandleErrorAttribute class and it is handling only 500.

What do I have to do to handle other errors?

Answer 1

I had everything set up, but still couldn't see proper error pages for status code 500 on our staging server, despite the fact everything worked fine on local development servers.

I found this blog post from Rick Strahl that helped me.

I needed to add Response.TrySkipIisCustomErrors = true; to my custom error handling code.

Answer 2

In web.config add this under system.webserver tag as below,

<system.webServer>
<httpErrors errorMode="Custom" existingResponse="Replace">
  <remove statusCode="404"/>
  <remove statusCode="500"/>
  <error statusCode="404" responseMode="ExecuteURL" path="/Error/NotFound"/>
  <error statusCode="500" responseMode="ExecuteURL"path="/Error/ErrorPage"/>
</httpErrors>

and add a controller as,

public class ErrorController : Controller
{
    //
    // GET: /Error/
    [GET("/Error/NotFound")]
    public ActionResult NotFound()
    {
        Response.StatusCode = 404;

        return View();
    }

    [GET("/Error/ErrorPage")]
    public ActionResult ErrorPage()
    {
        Response.StatusCode = 500;

        return View();
    }
}

and add their respected views, this will work definitely I guess for all.

This solution I found it from: Neptune Century

Answer 3

Building on the answer posted by maxspan, I've put together a minimal sample project on GitHub showing all the working parts.

Basically, we just add an Application_Error method to global.asax.cs to intercept the exception and give us an opportunity to redirect (or more correctly, transfer request) to a custom error page.

    protected void Application_Error(Object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13905164/how-to-make-custom-error-pages-work-in-asp-net-mvc-4
        // for additional context on use of this technique

        var exception = Server.GetLastError();
        if (exception != null)
        {
            // This would be a good place to log any relevant details about the exception.
            // Since we are going to pass exception information to our error page via querystring,
            // it will only be practical to issue a short message. Further detail would have to be logged somewhere.

            // This will invoke our error page, passing the exception message via querystring parameter
            // Note that we chose to use Server.TransferRequest, which is only supported in IIS 7 and above.
            // As an alternative, Response.Redirect could be used instead.
            // Server.Transfer does not work (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/320439 )
            Server.TransferRequest("~/Error?Message=" + exception.Message);
        }

    }

Error Controller:

/// <summary>
/// This controller exists to provide the error page
/// </summary>
public class ErrorController : Controller
{
    /// <summary>
    /// This action represents the error page
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="Message">Error message to be displayed (provided via querystring parameter - a design choice)</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public ActionResult Index(string Message)
    {
        // We choose to use the ViewBag to communicate the error message to the view
        ViewBag.Message = Message;
        return View();
    }

}

Error page View:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>
<head>
    <title>Error</title>
</head>
<body>

    <h2>My Error</h2>
    <p>@ViewBag.Message</p>
</body>
</html>

Nothing else is involved, other than disabling/removing filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute()) in FilterConfig.cs

public class FilterConfig
{
    public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
    {
        //filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute()); // <== disable/remove
    }
}

While very simple to implement, the one drawback I see in this approach is using querystring to deliver exception information to the target error page.

Answer 4

I do something that requires less coding than the other solutions posted.

First, in my web.config, I have the following:

<customErrors mode="On" defaultRedirect="~/ErrorPage/Oops">
   <error redirect="~/ErrorPage/Oops/404" statusCode="404" />
   <error redirect="~/ErrorPage/Oops/500" statusCode="500" />
</customErrors>

And the controller (/Controllers/ErrorPageController.cs) contains the following:

public class ErrorPageController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Oops(int id)
    {
        Response.StatusCode = id;

        return View();
    }
}

And finally, the view contains the following (stripped down for simplicity, but it can conta:

@{ ViewBag.Title = "Oops! Error Encountered"; }

<section id="Page">
  <div class="col-xs-12 well">
    <table cellspacing="5" cellpadding="3" style="background-color:#fff;width:100%;" class="table-responsive">
      <tbody>
        <tr>
          <td valign="top" align="left" id="tableProps">
            <img width="25" height="33" src="~/Images/PageError.gif" id="pagerrorImg">
          </td>
          <td width="360" valign="middle" align="left" id="tableProps2">
            <h1 style="COLOR: black; FONT: 13pt/15pt verdana" id="errortype"><span id="errorText">@Response.Status</span></h1>
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td width="400" colspan="2" id="tablePropsWidth"><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">Possible causes:</font>
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td width="400" colspan="2" id="tablePropsWidth2">
            <font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana" id="LID1">
                            <hr>
                            <ul>
                                <li id="list1">
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong>Baptist explanation: </strong>There
                                        must be sin in your life. Everyone else opened it fine.<br>
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong>Presbyterian explanation: </strong>It's
                                        not God's will for you to open this link.<br>
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong> Word of Faith explanation:</strong>
                                        You lack the faith to open this link. Your negative words have prevented
                                        you from realizing this link's fulfillment.<br>
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong>Charismatic explanation: </strong>Thou
                                        art loosed! Be commanded to OPEN!<br>
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong>Unitarian explanation:</strong> All
                                        links are equal, so if this link doesn't work for you, feel free to
                                        experiment with other links that might bring you joy and fulfillment.<br>
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong>Buddhist explanation:</strong> .........................<br>
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong>Episcopalian explanation:</strong>
                                        Are you saying you have something against homosexuals?<br>
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong>Christian Science explanation: </strong>There
                                        really is no link.<br>
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong>Atheist explanation: </strong>The only
                                        reason you think this link exists is because you needed to invent it.<br>
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                                <li>
                                    <span class="infotext">
                                        <strong>Church counselor's explanation:</strong>
                                        And what did you feel when the link would not open?
                                    </span>
                                </li>
                            </ul>
                            <p>
                                <br>
                            </p>
                            <h2 style="font:8pt/11pt verdana; color:black" id="ietext">
                                <img width="16" height="16" align="top" src="~/Images/Search.gif">
                                HTTP @Response.StatusCode - @Response.StatusDescription <br>
                            </h2>
                        </font>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>
  </div>
</section>

It's just as simple as that. It could be easily extended to offer more detailed error info, but ELMAH handles that for me & the statusCode & statusDescription is all that I usually need.

Answer 5

Here is my solution. Use [ExportModelStateToTempData] / [ImportModelStateFromTempData] is uncomfortable in my opinion.

~/Views/Home/Error.cshtml:

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Error";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}

<h2>Error</h2>
<hr/>

<div style="min-height: 400px;">

    @Html.ValidationMessage("Error")

    <br />
    <br />

    <button onclick="Error_goBack()" class="k-button">Go Back</button>
    <script>
        function Error_goBack() {
            window.history.back()
        }
    </script>

</div>

~/Controllers/HomeController.sc:

public class HomeController : BaseController
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    public ActionResult Error()
    {
        return this.View();
    }

    ...
}

~/Controllers/BaseController.sc:

public class BaseController : Controller
{
    public BaseController() { }

    protected override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
    {
        if (filterContext.Result is ViewResult)
        {
            if (filterContext.Controller.TempData.ContainsKey("Error"))
            {
                var modelState = filterContext.Controller.TempData["Error"] as ModelState;
                filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState.Merge(new ModelStateDictionary() { new KeyValuePair<string, ModelState>("Error", modelState) });
                filterContext.Controller.TempData.Remove("Error");
            }
        }
        if ((filterContext.Result is RedirectResult) || (filterContext.Result is RedirectToRouteResult))
        {
            if (filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState.ContainsKey("Error"))
            {
                filterContext.Controller.TempData["Error"] = filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState["Error"];
            }
        }

        base.OnActionExecuted(filterContext);
    }
}

~/Controllers/MyController.sc:

public class MyController : BaseController
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    public ActionResult Details(int id)
    {
        if (id != 5)
        {
            ModelState.AddModelError("Error", "Specified row does not exist.");
            return RedirectToAction("Error", "Home");
        }
        else
        {
            return View("Specified row exists.");
        }
    }
}

I wish you successful projects ;-)

Answer 6

You can get errors working correctly without hacking global.cs, messing with HandleErrorAttribute, doing Response.TrySkipIisCustomErrors, hooking up Application_Error, or whatever:

In system.web (just the usual, on/off)

<customErrors mode="On">
  <error redirect="/error/401" statusCode="401" />
  <error redirect="/error/500" statusCode="500" />
</customErrors>

and in system.webServer

<httpErrors existingResponse="PassThrough" />

Now things should behave as expected, and you can use your ErrorController to display whatever you need.