Designating a Section as an Error Handler

There are several circumstances when a visitor or contributor to your site encounters an error message.

For example, if a secondary page template is missing in the section where a contributor data file is stored, you may encounter a message saying the secondary page could not be found. Or, if a contributor data file or native document is removed from the site but still being linked to from another part of the site, you may get a missing file message.

You can prevent such errors from appearing by designating a section as an error handler and then creating a custom error page (page template) for that section.

To designate a section as an error handler, perform these tasks:

1. Add a new section to your Web site (see Adding a Section to the Site Hierarchy).

   
   

   Note: The "label" that you use does not appear anywhere on the site.

   
   

2. Right-click the section and choose Set Section as Error Handler.

   The icon for the section displays in red with an exclamation mark (Figure).

   Error Handler Section icon

   
   

3. Right-click the section again, choose Select Primary Page, and follow the steps to add a page template to the section (see Assigning a Primary Page).

4. Then, on the page template, create the custom error message or use the sample fragment provided in the Toolbox (see Error Handler Message).

When you designate a section as an error handler, you do not want to include that section in your site navigation.