# Using the 404 for Missing Routes and Actions

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-the-404-for-missing-routes-and-actions/110698>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 29, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-the-404-for-missing-routes-and-actions/110698 "2007-07-29T21:51:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![blaine](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@blaine](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/blaine)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-the-404-for-missing-routes-and-actions/110698/1 "2007-07-29T21:51:09Z")

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I’ve tried searching the list for this but I’m not really sure what  
Rails would call it. Basically what I’m wanting to do is to help  
against users changing the URL string, or to help users with expired  
bookmarks from the previous version of the site. When a method  
doesn’t exist or an action on a method rather then showing “Routing  
Error” or “Unknown Action” I want to be able to either forward that to  
the 404 error page or just redirect it to my home controller’s index  
action. How would one go about doing this?

Regards,

Tim

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![blaine](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@blaine](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/blaine)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 2:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-the-404-for-missing-routes-and-actions/110698/2 "2007-07-31T02:05:14Z")

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There may be a more elegant way, but this works:

Create a controller with an action that returns a 404 (or an action  
that would redirect to your home page whatever that is or whatever  
else you want to happen)

class ErrorsController \< ApplicationController  
def not\_found  
render :file =\> “#{RAILS\_ROOT}/public/404.html”, :layout =\>  
false, :status =\> 404  
end  
end

then put a catch-all route to this at the end of /config/routes.rb:

ActionController::Routing::Routes.draw do |map|

# snip

map.connect ‘\*path’, :controller =\> ‘errors’, :action =\> ‘not\_found’  
end

Any input that a miscreant user enters that doesn’t match a route will  
be caught by this final route and cause the not\_found action to fire.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![blaine](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@blaine](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/blaine)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 3:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-the-404-for-missing-routes-and-actions/110698/3 "2007-07-31T03:08:18Z")

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On 7/29/07, blaine [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I’ve tried searching the list for this but I’m not really sure what  
> Rails would call it. Basically what I’m wanting to do is to help  
> against users changing the URL string, or to help users with expired  
> bookmarks from the previous version of the site. When a method  
> doesn’t exist or an action on a method rather then showing “Routing  
> Error” or “Unknown Action” I want to be able to either forward that to  
> the 404 error page or just redirect it to my home controller’s index  
> action. How would one go about doing this?

Those development stack traces are only shown in development mode, or  
in production mode IF the request is from the local web server. Look  
at extending #rescue\_action\_in\_public to suit your needs:

[http://dev.rubyonrails.org/browser/branches/1-2-stable/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/rescue.rb#L50](http://dev.rubyonrails.org/browser/branches/1-2-stable/actionpack/lib/action_controller/rescue.rb#L50)

I don’t know if there are any decent tutorials written on it though.  
But if there aren’t, they should be written for edge which improves  
this a lot IMO:

[http://dev.rubyonrails.org/browser/trunk/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/rescue.rb#L90](http://dev.rubyonrails.org/browser/trunk/actionpack/lib/action_controller/rescue.rb#L90)

You can easily define a status code and rendered template for custom  
exceptions without overwriting the method.

–  
Rick O.  
[http://lighthouseapp.com](http://lighthouseapp.com)  
[http://weblog.techno-weenie.net](http://weblog.techno-weenie.net)  
[http://mephistoblog.com](http://mephistoblog.com)