There are 2 main reason you want to create custom-made error pages to catch 404 (and others).
Default 404 Error Page
- It is more professional to catch an error and guide the user either back to a start page or some kind of error handling (appearing as part of you application and not some default Glassfish page which leaves him pretty much nowhere).
- You dont reveal any information about the application server and remove the most basic information for any hacker: What server software is running on this host ?
In Glassfish we can make use of 2 levels of error handling. At a global level, for the complete domain, and the application level. The application level error handling overrides the global handling. You can create a 404 error page that leads the user back to the application index and at the global level you create a message that does NOT contain a link to an application (entering a wrong context will show you there is no such application, but dont give you a hint where else to go!)
How to do it ?
Application Level
- Create a webpage in your web folder (eg. 404.html) with your application design template and add a link to the index page if necessary.
- Open the web.xml and add
... <error-page> <error-code>404</error-code> <location>/404.html</location> </error-page> </web-app>
- or use the assistant in Netbeans
web.xml in Netbeans
Glassfish Global Level
- Open you admin console and add a new property
send-error_1
code=404 path=/tmp/404.html reason=Resource_not_found
better: code=404 path=${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/docroot/404.html reason=Resource_not_found
Glassfish Console
- or execute asadmin
asadmin set server.http-service.virtual-server.server.property.send-error_1=”code=404 path=/tmp/404.html reason=Resource_not_found”
- or do it manually in the domain.xml
... <config name="server-config"> <http-service> <access-log /> <virtual-server id="server" network-listeners="http-listener-2,http-listener-1"> <property name="send-error_1" value="code=404 path=/tmp/404.html reason=Resource_not_found" /> </virtual-server> <virtual-server id="__asadmin" network-listeners="admin-listener" /> </http-service> ...
- Remark: You should place the code=xxx in front the property string (like above sample). There are some forum threads and tutorials putting it at the end (which does not work for me).
