404 error and cgi variables

[jmoshier]

Hello all,
We have a custom 404 error page that our provider has set the link to through
the IIS.
We have set the page email us using cfmail when the page is hit.
In the email we are using cgi variables to get the informaton needed.

My question is: Is there a way to grab the information of the page they were
trying to get to? I can see where they came from but that does not tell me what
page may be possibly having a problem.

Thanks for your help in advance.
jmoshier

<cfmail to="webmaster@domain.com"
from="webmaster@domain.com" subject="ERI - 404 Error Occured" type="html">
A user has encounted a 404 error. Details about the error are listed below:
<br><br>
<strong>Page User Coming From:</strong> #cgi.HTTP_REFERER#<br>
<strong>HTTP User Agent:</strong> #cgi.HTTP_USER_AGENT#<br>
<strong>Remote Address:</strong> #cgi.REMOTE_ADDR#<br>
</cfmail>

[sdwebguy99]

As an aside, make sure you are not emailing for EVERY 404 error--missing images will also trigger this script. In a year from now when your site goes through a redesign, you will regret it. :-)

[MikerRoo]

cgi.SCRIPT_NAME contains the page they were requesting.
cgi.QUERY_STRING contains any url parameters.
(Standard and Apache syntax -- may be different on IIS)

Cheers,
-- MikeR

[jmoshier]

MikeR,
I tried to use the script name variable and all it gives me is the name of my
404 page. Not the actual URL they were trying to get to.

Could this be because it is IIS?

Thanks for the help
jmoshier

[MikerRoo]

Yes. IIS must be doing some kind of internal redirect.
IIS may set a non-standard variable that has the information you need.
Put <CFDUMP var="#cgi#"> in your code and you might get lucky and see
something.

Barring that: use CF, not IIS, for 404 errors on CF files.
In CF administrator, check "Enable HTTP status codes".
Then specify your 404 handling template in the "Missing Template Handler".
CGI.Script_Name DOES work properly in a file triggered this way.

Good luck,
-- MikeR

[jmoshier]

Mike,
Thanks for the information. Unfortunately we can't specify a Missing Template
in the CF admininstrator. We are on a shared server.

Do you possibly know of another way to get the URL the user was trying to
reach?

Thanks,
jmoshier

[MikerRoo]

Sounds like the real problem here is your provider. Maybe it's time to
pressure them or to switch?

Anyway, i can only think of one other way to get this info. That's to have
your template open and parse the log files. Your provider has probably
blocked this method too. And, anyway, I don't recommend it.

[MikerRoo]

Just thought of another method that may or may not work...

Create an Application.cfm or Application.cfc file that sits at the root of
your web folder -- or add the add the following capability to all existing
Application.cxx files:

The CGI variables work correctly in the Application.cxx files. Copy each
request into a session variable. Hopefully, when your existing 404 page is
triggered, the session variable will be available and you can see the last
requested page.

Good luck,
-- MikeR

[Unregistered]

For Apache/Linux:

Apply something like my code below on the handler page:

<cfset the404 = cgi.REDIRECT_URL>

<cfif the404 CONTAINS ".php">
<cfset theFileName = listLen(the404,'/')>
<cfset theFileName = listGetAt(the404,theFileName,'/')>
<cflocation addtoken="no" url="/some_directory/#replaceNoCase(theFileName,'.php','.cfm')#">
</cfif>