test please delete

[NickFitz]

Originally Posted by TheBigYinJames

They'll be catching the 404 behind the scenes and redirecting. On ClientCoSite we use this very mechanism to produce resized car images on demand... you call the image with the size in the url e.g. /images/300x200/fordfiesta.jpg and when the server catches the 404, we redirect to a script which examines the url, creates the correct sized image on the fly from a large reference image, sticks it in the cache, and then redirects to that image.

I'm familiar with the technique you describe, but that doesn't make any sense in this context - the page is for their 2005 conference, and is therefore obsolete, so the intention is clearly to actually serve a response saying that the page is no longer available.

Clearly some incompetent has been told to replace the page with a 404, and thinks that just sticking up a page saying 404 is adequate, not realising that you have to send the actual HTTP response code.

And anyway, it should be 410 Gone

[TheBigYinJames]

Originally Posted by NickFitz

Clearly some incompetent has been told to replace the page with a 404, and thinks that just sticking up a page saying 404 is adequate, not realising that you have to send the actual HTTP response code.

It does seem a bit odd to make a page which is pretending to be a 404. Either they should serve a pretty "no longer here" page or just delete the folder and they'll get a proper server 404 for free

[NickFitz]

Originally Posted by TheBigYinJames

It does seem a bit odd to make a page which is pretending to be a 404. Either they should serve a pretty "no longer here" page or just delete the folder and they'll get a proper server 404 for free

Even if they serve a pretty "no longer here" page they ought to serve it with response code 410, or 404 at a pinch, otherwise it will continue to be indexed by search engines and such. Once they see the 410 (or 404) it will be removed from indexes, whereas as long as it's served with 200 OK it will be assumed to be the actual resource located at that URL and will be indexed.

On the same topic, why don't browsers automatically update bookmarks when they get a 301 Moved Permanently?

[BrilloPad]

Originally Posted by NickFitz

I'm familiar with the technique you describe, but that doesn't make any sense in this context - the page is for their 2005 conference, and is therefore obsolete, so the intention is clearly to actually serve a response saying that the page is no longer available.

Clearly some incompetent has been told to replace the page with a 404, and thinks that just sticking up a page saying 404 is adequate, not realising that you have to send the actual HTTP response code.

And anyway, it should be 410 Gone

more nerdy stuff!

[BrilloPad]

Originally Posted by kali

Just a cup of tea and a snog then....

What do I get for £50?

[BrilloPad]

Originally Posted by kali

I am "so" bored......

There must be more to life than this.... If I was younger I'd sell my bod instead

Anything to break the monotony....

How old are you?

[NickFitz]

Originally Posted by NickFitz

On the same topic, why don't browsers automatically update bookmarks when they get a 301 Moved Permanently?

Just tested on Opera 9.22, Firefox 2 and Safari 3 (can't be bothered to dig out the build numbers)... none of them update the URL of a bookmark on receiving a 301 Moved Permanently response, despite the fact that they've just been told that the resource has, um, moved permanently - and they know where to, because they follow the redirect.

Surely the whole point is to update the bookmark so that when you use it again, you get to the actual resource you were trying to get to, rather than having to be redirected a second time?

[BrilloPad]

BrilloPad 12,840
zeitghost 11,849
DS23 10,000

hmmm - I am not drivelling enough!

[NickFitz]

Originally Posted by NickFitz

Surely the whole point is to update the bookmark so that when you use it again, you get to the actual resource you were trying to get to, rather than having to be redirected a second time?

Hmm... apparently one of the problems with automatically updating bookmarks is that certain incompetent closed wifi access point administrators use a 301 Moved Permanently redirect to send one to their login page... they should of course use 302 Found (or preferably either 303 See Other or 307 Temporary Redirect)

And where does one find these incompetent buffoons?

Hotel wifi providers, of course

[zeitghost]

Originally Posted by RichardCranium

Gosh. Things do move on.

That all sounds too hard now.

Quite.

There was a time when I could have designed a PC AT it was just a bog standard micro with ttl glue logic & Intel support chips... these days there's no chance