custom 404 page nav bar no good if missing page is in subdirectory

[Dorothy]

My website, www.taxtips.ca, is hosted by Netnation, who allow a custom 404
error page. The page has to be named missing.html and exist in the root
directory. I set this page up, and it works fine most of the time. I have
links to other pages from missing.html, and I had to change them so that they
have the whole url of, for instance my link to the home page at
http://www.taxtips.ca/index.htm. This is because if a person was looking for
a page that used to exist, and was in a subdirectory, the links did not work.
For instance, if a person is looking for
http://www.taxtips.ca/busdir/xxx.htm, then without the full url, the link for
the home page would be going to http://www.taxtips.ca/busdir/index.htm.

That was easily enough fixed, but the left navigation bars are not working
properly when the person is looking for a non-existant page in a
subdirectory, because, for instance, the link for the home page in the
navigation bar is looking for http://www.taxtips.ca/busdir/index.htm.

The missing.html page is in my navigation structure. I have spoken to
technical support at Netnation, because I thought it must be something to do
with the way that their system handles the custom 404 error page. They think
it is just a FrontPage problem, not a problem at their end, so here I am.

I have created a new missing.html page to which I copied the text from the
old page, deleted the old missing.html, deleted it from the navigation
structure and re-added the new page to the navigation structure, to no avail.

Has anyone come across this situation before, and could help? Thanks in
advance. I have many subdirectories now, so this is more of a problem than
it used to be. The subdirectories, by the way, are not subwebs - they are
just subdirectories.

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

Is busdir a subdirectory or a subweb?



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression





| My website, www.taxtips.ca, is hosted by Netnation, who allow a custom 404
| error page. The page has to be named missing.html and exist in the root
| directory. I set this page up, and it works fine most of the time. I
have
| links to other pages from missing.html, and I had to change them so that
they
| have the whole url of, for instance my link to the home page at
| http://www.taxtips.ca/index.htm. This is because if a person was looking
for
| a page that used to exist, and was in a subdirectory, the links did not
work.
| For instance, if a person is looking for
| http://www.taxtips.ca/busdir/xxx.htm, then without the full url, the link
for
| the home page would be going to http://www.taxtips.ca/busdir/index.htm.
|
| That was easily enough fixed, but the left navigation bars are not working
| properly when the person is looking for a non-existant page in a
| subdirectory, because, for instance, the link for the home page in the
| navigation bar is looking for http://www.taxtips.ca/busdir/index.htm.
|
| The missing.html page is in my navigation structure. I have spoken to
| technical support at Netnation, because I thought it must be something to
do
| with the way that their system handles the custom 404 error page. They
think
| it is just a FrontPage problem, not a problem at their end, so here I am.
|
| I have created a new missing.html page to which I copied the text from the
| old page, deleted the old missing.html, deleted it from the navigation
| structure and re-added the new page to the navigation structure, to no
avail.
|
| Has anyone come across this situation before, and could help? Thanks in
| advance. I have many subdirectories now, so this is more of a problem
than
| it used to be. The subdirectories, by the way, are not subwebs - they are
| just subdirectories.

 

[Dorothy]

busdir is a subdirectory, not a subweb.

By the way, I was not able to get to your reply by clicking on the link in
the e-mail that was sent to me indicating that a response had been posted -
that just got me a blank screen.

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

don't use the web interface it's clunky. you're really seeing a feed from
nntp server (Usenet) and we're using a newsreader like Outlook Express etc
to read the ngs.


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression





| busdir is a subdirectory, not a subweb.
|
| By the way, I was not able to get to your reply by clicking on the link in
| the e-mail that was sent to me indicating that a response had been
posted -
| that just got me a blank screen.
|
| "Rob Giordano (Crash)" wrote:
|
| > Is busdir a subdirectory or a subweb?
| >
| >
| >
| > --
| > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| > Rob Giordano
| > Microsoft MVP Expression
| >
| >
| >
| >
| >
| > | > | My website, www.taxtips.ca, is hosted by Netnation, who allow a custom
404
| > | error page. The page has to be named missing.html and exist in the
root
| > | directory. I set this page up, and it works fine most of the time. I
| > have
| > | links to other pages from missing.html, and I had to change them so
that
| > they
| > | have the whole url of, for instance my link to the home page at
| > | http://www.taxtips.ca/index.htm. This is because if a person was
looking
| > for
| > | a page that used to exist, and was in a subdirectory, the links did
not
| > work.
| > | For instance, if a person is looking for
| > | http://www.taxtips.ca/busdir/xxx.htm, then without the full url, the
link
| > for
| > | the home page would be going to
http://www.taxtips.ca/busdir/index.htm.
| > |
| > | That was easily enough fixed, but the left navigation bars are not
working
| > | properly when the person is looking for a non-existant page in a
| > | subdirectory, because, for instance, the link for the home page in the
| > | navigation bar is looking for http://www.taxtips.ca/busdir/index.htm.
| > |
| > | The missing.html page is in my navigation structure. I have spoken to
| > | technical support at Netnation, because I thought it must be something
to
| > do
| > | with the way that their system handles the custom 404 error page.
They
| > think
| > | it is just a FrontPage problem, not a problem at their end, so here I
am.
| > |
| > | I have created a new missing.html page to which I copied the text from
the
| > | old page, deleted the old missing.html, deleted it from the navigation
| > | structure and re-added the new page to the navigation structure, to no
| > avail.
| > |
| > | Has anyone come across this situation before, and could help? Thanks
in
| > | advance. I have many subdirectories now, so this is more of a problem
| > than
| > | it used to be. The subdirectories, by the way, are not subwebs - they
are
| > | just subdirectories.
| >
| >
| >

 

[Dorothy]

Thanks for that - are you able to give me any advice on the 404 page nav bar
problem?

 

[Ronx]

You are using a FrontPage link bar for navigation. This always fail in
your web site unless the missing page is in the same directory as the
error page (in your case the root directory).
There are 2 solutions (but I would not recommend the second):

1) Build the link bar by hand. You can base this on the existing link
bar by viewing the page in a browser, and copying the code for the link
bar.
The copied code is then pasted into the error page, replacing the
FrontPage link bar webbot. Then change all the links to pages and
images to root relative or absolute (don't forget links in JavaScript):
Root relative examples: /index.html , /images/picture.jpg
Notice the leading /
Absolute link examples: http://example.com/index.html ,
http://example.com/images/picture.jpg

2) Not Recommended: Place a meta refresh in the <head> section of the
error page that loads a copy of the error page. The link bar in the
copy will work correctly. This method is not recommended because the
404 error header that the error page produces will be replaced by a 202
OK header (implying the missing page exists), and search engines may
penalise you for the refresh.
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=/missingcopy.html">

--
Ron Symonds - Microsoft MVP (FrontPage)
Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.

http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

You will need to use the full URL for all links on the missing.html page and no FP navigation
components, unless hardcoded on the page.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage

http://www.Ecom-Data.com
==============================================

 

[Dorothy]

Thank you. Yes, I had done this already with the regular links on the page,
so at least they work.

 

[Dorothy]

Thank you very much for this information. I'm not sure yet whether I will do
either one of these, or just leave it as is - I have links on the page that
work to get people to the home page. At least you have given me some
alternatives. I appreciate that!!