Hi there
We have created a custom 404 error page and would like it to display using our website template rather than the default Joomla template 404 page styling. This means the page would have all of our normal website layout/styling, menu, footer, module settings. Luigi has posted this in answer to a similar question previously from another forum member (
www.selfget.com/forum/redj/500-make-404-error-page-use-site-template.html):
"you can get what you need, because you can add a custom error page that can include your HTML and there's a macro to include an article content by its id. You could just generate the page you like, call it from the browser, copy all HTML code, and paste in a new error page, finally you can customize some parts to add info about error (using macros)."
Unfortunately I have not been able to work out the correct way to implement this. I have created a new Page 404 in ReDJ Manager and copied the html code from a browser for our bespoke 404 error page. I know this is not the correct solution as our module positions and some other template items do not display. I think we may need to add a custom error.css file in our template directory and then add the correct article ID and error.css file in ReDJ Manager. I just need some guidance so that everything works as it should. My skill level with Joomla is relatively low so I find step by step guides or actual examples easier to follow.
I spent some time trying to get the official Joomla method for 404 errors to work correctly. Unfortunately they all went to a 302 redirect which resolved to a 200 ok page which is apparently very bad for SEO purposes. This is why we are now trying to use ReDJ to solve the problem. Certainly our 404 error page which is now controlled by ReDJ seems to be resolving perfectly to a 404 page according to online redirect checkers so that is a good start.
I would like to say that ReDJ is an excellent extension and we are starting to use it more to help us to handle errors/redirects more efficiently than we have in the past.
If anyone can suggest a solution to getting the ReDJ 404 page to integrate correctly using our custom template that would be much appreciated. Thank you.