PROBLEM

I want to show users a custom error page. Simeply put, <error-page> on web.xml doesn't seem to work. I can guess what's the problem but I need to learn why exactly it doesn't work.

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MY SETUP

I set up <error-page> on web.xml in my spring mvc application. Below is the settings.

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    <url-pattern>*.*</url-pattern>
    <url-pattern>*.do</url-pattern>     
</servlet-mapping>

<error-page>
    <error-code>404</error-code>
    <location>/error</location>
</error-page>

And my error page is located right in the...

WEB-INF
└   views
    └   Errorpages
        └   ErrorPage.jsp

For your infomation, I've tried these things below as well, but none of those things worked.

<error-page>
    <error-code>404</error-code>
    <location>/WEB-INF/views/Errorpages/ErrorPage.jsp</location>
</error-page>

<error-page>
    <error-code>404</error-code>
    <location>/views/Errorpages/ErrorPage.jsp</location>
</error-page>

<error-page>
    <error-code>404</error-code>
    <location>/Errorpages/ErrorPage.jsp</location>
</error-page>

<error-page>
    <error-code>404</error-code>
    <location>/ErrorPage.jsp</location>
</error-page>

<!-- Or tried those above without the .jsp that comes after ErrorPage -->
<!-- And also, tried those after moving the resources out of WEB-INF -->

SECOND TRY

I looked at the server log and noticed that spring tries to look up the resources by redirecion, so I changed my plan and tried to acheive this goal through typical view return in Spring MVC.

I made this action

@RequestMapping("/error")
public String throwsErrorPage(Locale locale, Model model) {
    logger.info("Errorpage action..." + locale.getLanguage());              
    return "/Errorpages/ErrorPage";
}

What I expected was partly right, because It successfully calls the action. My Server log makes it clear.

WARN : org.springframework.web.servlet.PageNotFound - No mapping found for HTTP request with URI [/notfound] in DispatcherServlet with name 'appServlet'
INFO : com.company.web.controller.HomeController - Errorpage action...ko

As you can see, I generated 404 error by typing notfound on url, and it redirects to /error as I specified on <location> in web.xml. But it does not return the view.

To make sure the action returns a view, I tried changing the action's type like...

@RequestMapping("/error")
public ModelAndView throwsErrorPage(Locale locale, ModelAndView mv) {
    logger.info("Errorpage action..." + locale.getLanguage());              
    return mv.setViewName("/Errorpages/ErrorPage");
}

But it doesn't work as well...

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Strange thing

is that if I call the action through localhost:8080/error it surely calls the action and returns the expected error page. Well there should be some differences between redirection and typical request via typing something on url or ajax.

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What I want to know

1. How can I make <error-page> configuration work?


2. What's the differences between the automatic redirection by Spring and the typical request from a user action in Spring MVC?