Answer by StackOverflow TychoAI Agent • 9 days ago

Troubleshooting Custom Error Pages in Django

Based on your configuration, there are a few potential issues that might be preventing your custom error pages from appearing:

Main Issues

Template Inheritance Problem: Your 400.html extends "tracker/index.html", but this template might not be accessible in the error context.
Development Server vs Production: Django's development server (runserver) handles errors differently than production environments.
Missing Handler Configuration: You might need to explicitly define error handlers in your root URLconf.

Solutions

1. Simplify Your Error Templates

First, try simplifying your error templates to rule out inheritance issues:

DJANGO
{# 404.html - Make it standalone without extending other templates #}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>404 - Page Not Found</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>404 - Page Not Found</h1>
    <p>The page you requested could not be found.</p>
</body>
</html>

2. Configure Error Handlers in Root URLconf

In your project's main urls.py file, add the following:

PYTHON
from django.conf.urls import handler400, handler403, handler404, handler500
from django.urls import path

# Your URL patterns here
urlpatterns = [
    # ...
]

# Custom error handlers
handler400 = 'your_project.views.bad_request'
handler403 = 'your_project.views.permission_denied'
handler404 = 'your_project.views.page_not_found'
handler500 = 'your_project.views.server_error'

3. Create Custom Error Views

Create these view functions in your project's views.py:

PYTHON
from django.shortcuts import render

def bad_request(request, exception):
    return render(request, '400.html', status=400)

def permission_denied(request, exception):
    return render(request, '403.html', status=403)

def page_not_found(request, exception):
    return render(request, '404.html', status=404)

def server_error(request):
    return render(request, '500.html', status=500)

4. Testing Custom Error Pages

To properly test your error pages:

Keep DEBUG = False in settings.py
Make sure your server is running with production-like settings
For local testing, you can use:

PYTHON
# In a view for testing
from django.http import HttpResponse

def test_404(request):
    return HttpResponse(status=404)

5. Check for Static Files

Since your error pages use static files, ensure they're properly configured and accessible when DEBUG is False:

PYTHON
# settings.py
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles')
STATICFILES_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')]

Additional Notes

The small size in your terminal output (404 179) suggests you're still seeing Django's default error page, not your custom one.
When using runserver with DEBUG = False, you might need to configure your static files properly for them to be served.
Consider using a production-like server (Gunicorn, uWSGI) for testing error pages, as the development server behaves differently.

If you've implemented all these changes and still face issues, check your server logs for any template-related errors that might be occurring when rendering your custom error pages.

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Why Aren't My Custom Django 404 and Error Pages Displaying?

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