404's

I've just done a big update on a site and, of course, the files names and structure has all changed. I've been looking for ways to handle the 404 problems, especially for SEO. I host several sites on the same IIS server, running CF 7, so I'm reluctant to use the server wide 404 mapping in CF Admin. What other options do I have?  If I could just redirect all 404's to one page per site, it would be a good start, but is there some way I could keep a single file with a list of the old/new file mappings and have the browser redirected to the right place? TIA, Jenny

If you had CF8, you could take advantage of the onMissingTemplate method. You could try using a URL rewrite tech such as ISAPE_REWRITE. It's really easy and relatively inexpensive. There's also an open source alternative to it, but I can't recall the name of it. I've just done a big update on a site and, of course, the files names and structure has all changed. I've been looking for ways to handle the 404 problems, especially for SEO. I host several sites on the same IIS server, running CF 7, so I'm reluctant to use the server wide 404 mapping in CF Admin. What other options do I have?  If I could just redirect all 404's to one page per site, it would be a good start, but is there some way I could keep a single file with a list of the old/new file mappings and have the browser redirected to the right place? TIA, Jenny

You need to put the original files back and 301 them to the new files. You can also use ISAPI rewrite. I would not redirect all 404's to one page. I've just done a big update on a site and, of course, the files names and structure has all changed. I've been looking for ways to handle the 404 problems, especially for SEO. I host several sites on the same IIS server, running CF 7, so I'm reluctant to use the server wide 404 mapping in CF Admin. What other options do I have?  If I could just redirect all 404's to one page per site, it would be a good start, but is there some way I could keep a single file with a list of the old/new file mappings and have the browser redirected to the right place? TIA, Jenny

Thanks for the replies ... Would it be possible to change the default 404 page in IE? You need to put the original files back and 301 them to the new files. You can also use ISAPI rewrite. I would not redirect all 404's to one page. I've just done a big update on a site and, of course, the files names and structure has all changed. I've been looking for ways to handle the 404 problems, especially for SEO. I host several sites on the same IIS server, running CF 7, so I'm reluctant to use the server wide 404 mapping in CF Admin. What other options do I have?  If I could just redirect all 404's to one page per site, it would be a good start, but is there some way I could keep a single file with a list of the old/new file mappings and have the browser redirected to the right place? TIA, Jenny

What???? Do you know what a 404 page is? It's on the server. You don't use IE to change it unless you are talking a web based control panel (and even then, that's specific to what kind of web package you have). So... the short answer is... Depends. On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:20 AM, Jenny Gavin-Wear <jennygw@fasttrackonline.co.uk> wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

When I looked into IIS it appeared to me that the default error pages could be changed for each hosted site. I'm nervous about playing with it and screwing it up .. And yes, thanks, I've been in IT long enough to know what a 404 is. What???? Do you know what a 404 page is? It's on the server. You don't use IE to change it unless you are talking a web based control panel (and even then, that's specific to what kind of web package you have). So... the short answer is... Depends. On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:20 AM, Jenny Gavin-Wear <jennygw@fasttrackonline.co.uk> wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- reluctant > to use the server wide 404 mapping in CF Admin. > > What other options do I have?  If I could just redirect all 404's to one > page per site, it would be a good start, but is there some way I could keep > a single file with a list of the old/new file mappings and have the browser ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Ok.. Yes.. It can be changed with IE... Also with Safari and Firefox... But not Opera... Don't use Opera. ;) On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:39 AM, Jenny Gavin-Wear <jennygw@fasttrackonline.co.uk> wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

This is for Win 2k server, but it probably hasn't changed too much in   newer versions. Hope it helps. You can probably test on your local   windows machine before deploying to server. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727138.aspx Dave On May 8, 2008, at 11:39 AM, Jenny Gavin-Wear wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Hi Jenny, This is actually pretty easy to do. In IIS you can define a custom 404 page for each site. What not all people know is that the 404 page can be a CF page, not just an html page. So when someone makes a request to your site for a page that does not exist, IIS hands that request over to the ColdFusion 404 page, which then processes the request. That processing could entail querying a database to see if the requested page is listed there (this would be a table which simply contains all your old site's file names and their corresponding new file names). If it exists, redirect them to the new page. If not, display a nicely formated 404 message. Here is an old CF Dev Journal article which describes the process. http://cfdj.sys-con.com/read/41795.htm Also, Ben Nadel has put together a fairly extensive example of this on his blog. http://www.bennadel.com/snippets/29-Handling-404-Errors-in-ColdFusion.htm Oh, and one other thing, when you define the 404 page in IIS, make sure you choose "URL" as your message type and reference your CF file relative to your web root (i.e. /404.cfm) Hope this helps, Dean ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 10:19 PM, Jenny Gavin-Wear <jennygw@fasttrackonline.co.uk> wrote: > I've just done a big update on a site and, of course, the files names and > structure has all changed. > > I've been looking for ways to handle the 404 problems, especially for SEO. For SEO reasons, you want the old pages to 301 redirect to the new ones rather than go to a 404. When a search engine spider hits a 404 it will drop the listing (not usually the first time, but eventually). When it hits a 301 (moved permanently) it will follow the link and should update it's index (again, not usually the first time, but eventually). On Apache you would do this with htaccess files - redirects and mod_rewrite. On IIS you can use an ISAPI filter like ISAPI Rewrite (which has a per server cost) or there's a free one too called IONIC. Cheers, K. -- Kay Smoljak business: www.cleverstarfish.com coldfusion: kay.smoljak.com personal: goatlady.wordpress.com | heapsbad.com

It is technically possible to "override" what the browser displays when it receives an HTTP code of 404 by actually sending back 200 with a catch-all page that simply says "404-not found.  Please try here etc" at the top of it. This, of course, isn't really a "404" at all, but it is prettier than letting the browser deal with what to display.   For a prime example, go to www.yahoo.com/totally_non_existant_directory/index.html I completely made up that URL, but Yahoo still gives you something pretty. ~Brad What???? Do you know what a 404 page is? It's on the server. You don't use IE to change it unless you are talking a web based control panel (and even then, that's specific to what kind of web package you have). So... the short answer is... Depends. On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:20 AM, Jenny Gavin-Wear <jennygw@fasttrackonline.co.uk> wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- and > structure has all changed. > > I've been looking for ways to handle the 404 problems, especially for SEO. > > I host several sites on the same IIS server, running CF 7, so I'm reluctant > to use the server wide 404 mapping in CF Admin. > > What other options do I have?  If I could just redirect all 404's to one > page per site, it would be a good start, but is there some way I could keep > a single file with a list of the old/new file mappings and have the browser ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----