I’m working on a web application and I want to create custom error pages instead of using the default ones that show up when there’s a 404 not found error, 500 internal server error, or 502 bad gateway error.
Is there a way to use JavaScript to intercept these HTTP status codes and display my own custom error pages? I’m particularly interested in handling cases where the server might be completely down and showing a 502 error.
For example, if someone visits a page that doesn’t exist on my site, instead of showing the boring default 404 page, I want to show them a nice custom page with my site’s branding and maybe some helpful navigation links.
Can this be done with JavaScript alone, or do I need to configure something on the server side? What are the limitations when trying to customize these error pages with client-side code?
Been there, done that - learned some hard lessons. JavaScript can catch some errors with the fetch API or window.onerror, but it’s pretty useless for real HTTP status codes. Here’s the thing: when you get a 502 or 500 error, your JS might not even load because the server response is completely broken. I ended up mixing server-side configs for the main error handling with JavaScript enhancements on custom error pages. Makes the UX way better. For 404s, React Router works great since you can catch unmatched routes - but only inside your app, not for missing server files.
js won’t do much for real error handling. u gotta setup server configs for custom error pages. what i do is add some js to my 404/500 pages for suggestions or redirect timers, helps keep users engaged and reduces bounce rate.
JavaScript cannot directly intercept HTTP error codes like 404 or 500 since the server response usually renders before any client-side script can act. To create custom error pages, you should handle this on the server side. You can use configurations like .htaccess for Apache or error_page directives for Nginx to display your customized HTML pages. However, if you’re utilizing a single-page application with client-side routing, you can manage navigation errors and display tailored error messages, but this approach won’t cover actual server errors or missing resources.