[cse491] File not found errors

[C. Titus Brown]

On Sun, Nov 01, 2009 at 06:16:45PM -0800, Maitland Marsh wrote:
> Regarding 404 errors, on the web if I try and load a page that doesn't
> exist, I get a 404. But I can partially load a page with dead images or
> crapped out css, it just won't look the same.
> That being said, should our app return a 404 when any file is not found, or
> only an html page, and just ignore images etc. that aren't found?

I'm worried that there's more to your question than meets the eye, but:

yes, all requested files (whatever the type) that don't exist should
return a 404.

If an HTML file exists but references non-existent images or CSS files,
return the HTML file when it's requested, and return 404s for the images
and CSS files.

Under no circumstances should anyone be parsing the HTML files looking
for other files to return.  None, nix, nevah.

--titus
-- 
C. Titus Brown, ctb at msu.edu