404 Pages in ASP.NET MVC

Question

I'm building my first ASP.NET MVC website, and I'm trying to figure out how to implement a 404 page.

Should I create a controller called "404Controller?" If so, how do I then register this Controller with IIS so that it redirects 404s to that page? Also, in a situation where something is not found (in the database, for example) by some other Controller code, how would I redirect the request to my 404 page?

Answer 1

There's no single answer for what your are trying to do, the simplest and what I like is using the HttpException class, e.g.

public ActionResult ProductDetails(int id) {

   Product p = this.repository.GetProductById(id);

   if (p == null) {
      throw new HttpException(404, "Not Found");
   }

   return View(p);
}

On web.config you can configure customError pages, e.g.

<customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" redirectMode="ResponseRewrite">
   <error statusCode="404" redirect="Views/Errors/Http404.aspx" />
</customErrors>

Answer 2

The favorite option for me is to return a view called 404.

if (article == null)
    return View("404");

This will let you the option to have a generic 404 view in the shared folder, and a specific 404 view to the article controller.

In addition, a big plus is that there is no redirect over here.