2.13.2.17. Setting up a 404 page in Joomla!

Creating a 404 page inside the CMS

To create a page inside CMS, do the following:

1. Open the section "Materials → Material manager → Create material»:
2. Enter the details to create the desired 404 page:
   • «Heading"- specify an arbitrary page title.
   • «Material"- in the editor block, specify the text that you want to display on the page.
   • «Condition»- select Publishedby... Otherwise, access to the page will be impossible.
   • «Category»- select the required category. Most often it is best to choose Uncategorised.
   • «Access»- select Publicso that all site visitors have access. Otherwise, they will not be able to get to the 404 page, and the browser will display a page with an infinite redirect error.
3. Switch to the "Display"And hide unnecessary elements of this page: Generally, it is best to hide the following elements:
   • «Show labels».
   • «Introductory text».
   • «Material information header».
   • «Category».
   • «Category as link».
   • «Parent Category Title».
   • «Parent category title as link».
   • «Show associations».
   • «Author».
   • «Date of publication».
   • «Navigation».
   • «Show icons».
   • «Print icon».
   • «Number of views».
4. Save the page by clicking "Save».
5. As soon as the page refreshes and the data is saved, pay attention to the browser line and remember the page number indicated after &id=X:
6. Customize redirecting to this page, specifying as address _established_pages string /index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=Xwhere instead of X specify the previously saved page number.

Creating your own 404 page manually

To create your own 404 page (without using the Joomla template!), Create such a page, for example, in the root directory of the site with a name like 404-error.phpby using your own layout with the necessary information and visual design or using third-party templates, for example these or these.

After creating the page itself customize redirecting to it, specifying as address _established_pages filename, for example with the example given earlier /404-error.php.

Setting direction for 404 error

By default, 404 error is generated using the file error.php in the theme directory, but for the most part these files have a rather complex structure that ensures correct work with this particular theme.

To create the required forwarding, do the following:

1. Rename the file error.php active topic to another arbitrary name, for example error.php.bak.
2. Copy the file templates/system/error.php to the directory with the active theme.
3. Edit the file with the redirect lines:

   if (($this->error->getCode()) == '404') {
       header('Location: / address_established_pages');
   exit;
   }

   after the lines

   if (!isset($this->error))
   {
       $this->error = JError::raiseWarning(404, JText::_('JERROR_ALERTNOAUTHOR'));
       $this->debug = false;
   }
    
   $app = JFactory::getApplication();

   Instead /theaddress_established_pages specify the desired address of the previously created page.

You can perform all these actions using filemanager or any FTPclient.