Error pages break template

[blacklaw]

First, I'd like to say kudos for GreyMatter - I've been using it since 1.3.something, and it's excellent.

However, I have come across a rather odd little problem. I use a custom template on my website which uses a CSS file to prettify the page. It works great, except when it comes to the in-built error pages GreyMatter generates - such as the "You've been banned for spamming", the "You didn't type the CAPTCHA in correctly", and the "You have voted from an external site" errors.

Here's what the site looks like on the non-error pages:


And here's an example error page:


As you can see, the error page not only breaks the template, but also doesn't substitute the "calendar", "search", or "custom" variables - we see the raw code, rather than the generated HTML.

Any ideas?

[Carlos Phelps]

Your site layout looks good, but with the Error page you have run into a limit of the Error page template in that it will not process the Greymatter tags {{template}}

[blacklaw]

Aug 30, 2008 21:39:00 GMT -5 Carlos Phelps said:

Your site layout looks good, but with the Error page you have run into a limit of the Error page template in that it will not process the Greymatter tags {{template}}

I see. Are plans afoot to make the error page process the variables? Failing that, is there any way to edit the error page template, as I'd prefer a completely plain text-only page saying "You busted it - click here to return to site" to the dogs' dinner that my site becomes at the moment.

Cheers.

[Carlos Phelps]

Yes you can edit the error page template.

Log into your Greymatter then goto

Main Menu > Edit Templates > Editing Header, Footer & Sidebar Templates

At the bottom of the page you will find 'User Error Header Template' and 'User Error Footer Template.'

You can use any standard HTML/XHTML/CSS on these Error Templates.

Good Luck,
Carlos

[coldstone]

Hey blacklaw,

Thanks for the kindwords. I just mention that there are no current plans to have the Error page process other directives. The reason for this is that the error page is used for several operations beyond giving feedback to the user about the captcha, etc.

So, since the error page isn't sure what kicked it off (such as a bug in the code that renders a {{calendar}} tag), I didn't want to take a chance and have the page go through the variables. When I first introduced the page I managed to get several infinite loops going, where an error rendering a template variable, would cause and error, and then call the error page, which would generate yet another error when it tried to render the variables, etc.

The solution is to separate the functionality and have an Error page for the greymatter system, and a user Alert page, something that can have variables on it, and if there is an error, then it goes to (possibly plaintext) Error page. Due to my trying to reuse code as much as possible, the Error page got used for many things.