ASP.NET in a Nutshell

Name

<error>

Synopsis

<error statusCode=httpStatusCode
   redirect=Url />

Specifies a custom error page to handle redirections for a specific HTTP status code.

Scope

Any

Attributes

statusCode

Specifies the HTTP status code (such as 404 for a “Not Found” error) for the specified custom error page. This attribute is optional.

redirect

Specifies the URL of the page to which requests with a matching HTTP status code should be redirected. This attribute is optional.

Child Elements

None

Example

The example configures a custom error page for 404 errors, and the default error page configured in the previous example:

<configuration>
   <system.web>
      <customErrors
         defaultRedirect="Error.aspx">
         <error statusCode="404" redirect="My404ErrorPage.aspx"/>
      </customErrors>
   </system.web>
</configuration>

Notes

While custom error pages provide a convenient way to prevent users from seeing raw error messages (and perhaps provide more helpful messages), they are not a substitute for proper exception handling. By the time an error reaches a custom error page, recovering from the error gracefully will be much more difficult, which can degrade the experience of your users.