Error Handling in ASP.NET MVC

Question

Controller.OnException(ExceptionContext context). Override it.

protected override void OnException(ExceptionContext filterContext)
{
    // Bail if we can't do anything; app will crash.
    if (filterContext == null)
        return;
        // since we're handling this, log to elmah

    var ex = filterContext.Exception ?? new Exception("No further information exists.");
    LogException(ex);

    filterContext.ExceptionHandled = true;
    var data = new ErrorPresentation
        {
            ErrorMessage = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(ex.Message),
            TheException = ex,
            ShowMessage = !(filterContext.Exception == null),
            ShowLink = false
        };
    filterContext.Result = View("ErrorPage", data);
}

Thanks to kazimanzurrashaid, here is what I wound up doing in Global.asax.cs:

protected void Application_Error()
{
    Exception unhandledException = Server.GetLastError();
    HttpException httpException = unhandledException as HttpException;
    if (httpException == null)
    {
        Exception innerException = unhandledException.InnerException;
        httpException = innerException as HttpException;
    }

    if (httpException != null)
    {
        int httpCode = httpException.GetHttpCode();
        switch (httpCode)
        {
            case (int) HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized:
                Response.Redirect("/Http/Error401");
                break;
        }
    }
}

I'll be able to add more pages to the HttpContoller based on any additional HTTP error codes I need to support.

The HandleError attribute seems to only process exceptions thrown by the MVC infrastructure and not exceptions thrown by my own code.

That is just wrong. Indeed, HandleError will only "process" exceptions either thrown in your own code or in code called by your own code. In other words, only exceptions where your action is in the call stack.

The real explanation for the behavior you're seeing is the specific exception you're throwing. HandleError behaves differently with an HttpException. From the source code:

        // If this is not an HTTP 500 (for example, if somebody throws an HTTP 404 from an action method),
        // ignore it.
        if (new HttpException(null, exception).GetHttpCode() != 500) {
            return;
        }

I don't think you will be able to show specific ErrorPage based upon the HttpCode with the HandleError Attribute and I would prefer to use an HttpModule for this purpose. Assuming that I have folder "ErrorPages" where different page exists for each specific error and the mapping is specifed in the web.config same as the regular web form application. And the following is the code which is used to show the error page:

public class ErrorHandler : BaseHttpModule{

public override void OnError(HttpContextBase context)
{
    Exception e = context.Server.GetLastError().GetBaseException();
    HttpException httpException = e as HttpException;
    int statusCode = (int) HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError;

    // Skip Page Not Found and Service not unavailable from logging
    if (httpException != null)
    {
        statusCode = httpException.GetHttpCode();

        if ((statusCode != (int) HttpStatusCode.NotFound) && (statusCode != (int) HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable))
        {
            Log.Exception(e);
        }
    }

    string redirectUrl = null;

    if (context.IsCustomErrorEnabled)
    {
        CustomErrorsSection section = IoC.Resolve<IConfigurationManager>().GetSection<CustomErrorsSection>("system.web/customErrors");

        if (section != null)
        {
            redirectUrl = section.DefaultRedirect;

            if (httpException != null)
            {
                if (section.Errors.Count > 0)
                {
                    CustomError item = section.Errors[statusCode.ToString(Constants.CurrentCulture)];

                    if (item != null)
                    {
                        redirectUrl = item.Redirect;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    context.Response.Clear();
    context.Response.StatusCode = statusCode;
    context.Response.TrySkipIisCustomErrors = true;

    context.ClearError();

    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(redirectUrl))
    {
        context.Server.Transfer(redirectUrl);
    }
}
}