404 page response.redirect vs server.transfer

asp.net, http-status-code-404

Solution

customErrors statusCode="404" results in a 302 temporary redirect then a 404 (if you've set that in your 404 page's code).

Therefore, the following should do it for you in your global.asax or error HttpModule:

    protected void Application_Error(Object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Exception exception = Server.GetLastError();
        if (exception is HttpUnhandledException)
        {
            if (exception.InnerException == null)
            {
                Server.Transfer(ERROR_PAGE_LOCATION, false);
                return;
            }
            exception = exception.InnerException;
        }

        if (exception is HttpException)
        {
            if (((HttpException)exception).GetHttpCode() == 404)
            {
                Server.ClearError();
                Server.Transfer(NOT_FOUND_PAGE_LOCATION);
                return;
            }
        }

        if (Context != null && Context.IsCustomErrorEnabled)
            Server.Transfer(ERROR_PAGE_LOCATION, false);
        else
            Log.Error("Unhandled exception trapped in Global.asax", exception);
    }

Edit: Oh, and Best way to implement a 404 in ASP.NET put me on the road to the imperative Server.ClearError();

See http://www.andornot.com/blog/post/Handling-404-errors-with-ASPNET.aspx for a post I did that covers all of this.

Problem

when handling 404 errors in ASP.NET is it ok to set 404 errors to redirect to a page that sends the 404 response code to the browser or should server.transfer be used so the 404 header can be sent to the browser while the url remains the same?

Original source

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