Create a Custom vBulletin "404 Page Not Found" Page, and direct vBSEO to use it.

**Keith Cohen** · 02-07-2007 12:16 PM

This will allow you to create a custom 404 Page Not Found page that uses your vBulletin templates, and includes your vBulletin header, navbar, and footer.

All without modifying any vBulletin files.

vBulletin 3.x Custom 404

Create a new template named custom_404 and paste the following content into it. (Feel free to customize, of course.)

Code:

$stylevar[htmldoctype]
<html dir="$stylevar[textdirection]" lang="$stylevar[languagecode]">
<head>
 <!-- no cache headers -->
 <meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
 <meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1" />
 <meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" />
 <!-- end no cache headers -->
 $headinclude
 <title>Page Not Found - <phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[x_powered_by_vbulletin]</phrase></title>
</head>
<body>
$header
$navbar
<br />
<div style="padding-left: 25px; padding-right: 25px; font-weight: bold;" align="center">
Sorry, the page you have requested cannot be found.
<br/><br/>
You can try a <a href="$vboptions[bburl]/search.php">search</a> if you are looking for something specific.
</div>
$footer
</body>
</html>

Then, create a file called 404.php in your site root, or forums root, and paste the following content into it. You will need to customize the code in red to point to the physical location of the misc.php file that comes with vBulletin.

Code:

<?php
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
header("Status: 404 Not Found");
$_GET['do']='page';
$_REQUEST['do']='page';
$_GET['template']='404';
$_REQUEST['template']='404';
define('VBSEO_PREPROCESSED', 1);
include '/usr/home/username/public_html/forums/misc.php';
?>

vBulletin 4.x Custom 404

Create a new template named custom_404 and paste the following content into it. (Feel free to customize, of course.)

Code:

{vb:stylevar htmldoctype}
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="{vb:stylevar textdirection}" lang="{vb:stylevar languagecode}" id="vbulletin_html">
<head>
 <!-- no cache headers -->
 <meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
 <meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1" />
 <meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" />
 <!-- end no cache headers -->
 <title>Page Not Found - {vb:raw vboptions.bbtitle}</title>
 {vb:raw headinclude}
</head>
<body>
    {vb:raw header}
    
    {vb:raw navbar}
<br />
<div style="padding-left: 25px; padding-right: 25px; font-weight: bold;" align="center">
Sorry, the page you have requested cannot be found.
<br/><br/>
You can try a <a href="{vb:raw vboptions.bburl}/search.php">search</a> if you are looking for something specific.
</div>
 {vb:raw footer}
</body>
</html>

Then, create a file called 404.php in your site root, or forums root, and paste the following content into it. You will need to customize the code in red to point to the physical location of the misc.php file that comes with vBulletin.

Code:

<?php
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
header("Status: 404 Not Found");
$_GET['do']='page';
$_REQUEST['do']='page';
$_GET['template']='404';
$_REQUEST['template']='404';
define('VBSEO_PREPROCESSED', 1);
include '/usr/home/username/public_html/forums/misc.php';
?>

Then, in your vBSEO Control Panel, for the "File Not Found" requests handling? setting, enter the following. Again, you will need to customize this to point to the actual physical location of the 404.php file that you created in the previous step.

Code:

/usr/home/username/public_html/404.php

**Snake** · 02-07-2007 12:28 PM

Wow! This is really SOMETHING! Thanks for the article, Keith. I appreciate it.

**Exitilus** · 02-07-2007 02:24 PM

Awesome I'll set this up in a bit!!! :yay

**Notorious** · 02-07-2007 02:31 PM

this is very neat,thanks much

**dutchbb** · 02-07-2007 06:30 PM

Nice, I was thinking about it but not sure if it would be a good idea, with the search option included its actually better than redirecting to the homepage.

**Exitilus** · 02-07-2007 07:16 PM

Awesome works great

I'm curious is there a way I could include this onto pages that are not re-written with VBSEO ?

**Keith Cohen** · 02-07-2007 07:18 PM

You can use a .htaccess file to point to a custom 404 page, or some hosts have an online interface to let you specify a custom 404 page. Just point them to that same 404.php file you created.

**dutchbb** · 02-07-2007 07:53 PM

Changed it a bit for different layout: http://forum.dutchbodybuilding.com/404

If you want it here's the code for in the template:

PHP Code:

 $stylevar[htmldoctype]

<html dir="$stylevar[textdirection]" lang="$stylevar[languagecode]">

<head>

 <!-- no cache headers -->

 <meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />

 <meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1" />

 <meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" />

 <!-- end no cache headers -->

 $headinclude

 <title>Error 404: Page Not Found - <phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[x_powered_by_vbulletin]</phrase></title>

</head>

<body>

$header

$navbar

<div style="text align:center;">

<div style="margin:auto;text-align:left;padding:20px 30px 20px 30px;width:750px;border:1px solid #333;">

<h2 style="font:normal 26px Verdana,sans-serif;">Error 404: Page Not Found</h2>

<p>Unfortunately, we couldnt find the page you tried to view.</p>

<p>It is possible that the link you followed to get here was invalid, or out of date.</p>

<h3 style="font:20px Verdana,sans-serif;">Alternative Pages</h3>

<p>Please use the Search facility (above) to find the page you were looking for. Alternatively, you can go to one of the following popular pages:</p>

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" href="/search.php">Advanced Forums Search</a></li>

<li><a href="/">Forums Home Page</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

</div>

$footer

</body>

</html>

**BamaStangGuy** · 02-07-2007 08:16 PM

Why is it not seeing my CSS? http://www.mustangevolution.com/foru...eadlights.html

NM I just copied and pasted it into the template.

Is there a problem reading it when the style is stored in the file system?

**Keith Cohen** · 02-07-2007 10:01 PM

Ok, Oleg to the rescue!

You need to add this line to the 404.php file to correct the issue. (First post updated.)

This is the line that was added:

Code:

define('VBSEO_PREPROCESSED', 1);

**Snake** · 02-08-2007 06:07 AM

Hehe. I'm not sure whether you'll like mine but here you go. Check it out.

Final Fantasy Forums - HTTP Error 404: File Not Found

If you guys like it, then I'd be happy to share it with you all. Also I have even created from 400 till 505 custom error pages which took me a while to do that.

**Exitilus** · 02-08-2007 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

You can use a .htaccess file to point to a custom 404 page, or some hosts have an online interface to let you specify a custom 404 page. Just point them to that same 404.php file you created.

Been trying to use

ErrorDocument 404 /forums/404.php

but the stupid thing just won't work ... *cries*

**abdulla** · 02-20-2007 10:19 PM

DarkBlade, can you please share your custom error pages? they really look good

**Mike** · 02-21-2007 01:12 PM

Thanks Keith! and Thanks Tijl for the modified template. Been wanting something custom for this for quite some time now and had no clue how to do it.

**Ocean** · 02-23-2007 07:42 PM

Thanks Keith, nice custom feature!

Create a Custom vBulletin "404 Page Not Found" Page, and direct vBSEO to use it.

Create a Custom vBulletin "404 Page Not Found" Page, and direct vBSEO to use it.

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