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No more 'Error 404' pages. Something better.

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2004-10-24 17:36:02 - Graham Ellis

"If a user enters a URL on a web site, the web site should supply them with the information that they want." Wise words indeed from Rasmus Lerdorf, of PHP fame, on the recent GeekCruise. He was talking about "error 404" status pages and suggesting that web site authors could do better.

He was right, and he set me thinking; we already have a PHP tailored 404 page on this site, but I've improved it / hopefully done better today by "data mining" the URL for succinct information , and I'll be working further on it over the coming weeks - not that we have a problem; in the last 4 weeks our log files total just over half a million lines, with around 3000 of those being errors - mostly viruses / hackers trying to break in via Frontpage. But now you'll find:

* Pages that don't exist in the directory you give, but do exist in another, will be diverted.
* Pages that you call up with the wrong capitalisation will work correctly.
* Pages that you call up (with html extensions) that don't exist at all will do a "horse's mouth" search
* Pages remaining unresolved will give our home page

Some links to try:
/bristolzoo/entertainment.html
/lisa.html (I put that in because Lisa is a little timid)
/what/a/path/to/php.html