Custom Errors in MVC 3 Not Working

Question

I am attempting to use custom error pages in MVC 3 by specifying the custom errors in my web.config.

I have defined an ErrorController with one Action method Index() that is used for all errors in the application

My web.config looks like the following:

<configuration>
<configSections>
 <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
  <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
  <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
</sectionGroup>
<sectionGroup name="elmah">
  <section name="errorMail" requirePermission="false"  type="Elmah.ErrorMailSectionHandler, Elmah"/>
  <section name="security" requirePermission="false" type="Elmah.SecuritySectionHandler, Elmah"/>
  <section name="errorLog" requirePermission="false" type="Elmah.ErrorLogSectionHandler, Elmah"/>
  <section name="errorFilter" requirePermission="false" type="Elmah.ErrorFilterSectionHandler, Elmah"/>
</sectionGroup>
</configSections>

<system.web.webPages.razor>
<host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
<pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
  <namespaces>
    <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
    <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
    <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
    <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
  </namespaces>
</pages>
</system.web.webPages.razor>

<appSettings>
 <add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />
</appSettings>
<system.web>
<httpHandlers>
  <add path="*" verb="*" type="System.Web.HttpNotFoundHandler"/>
  <add verb="POST,GET,HEAD" path="elmah.axd" type="Elmah.ErrorLogPageFactory, Elmah"/>
</httpHandlers>
<httpModules>
  <add name="ErrorMail" type="Elmah.ErrorMailModule, Elmah"/>
  <add name="ErrorLog" type="Elmah.ErrorLogModule, Elmah"/>
  <add name="ErrorFilter" type="Elmah.ErrorFilterModule, Elmah"/>
</httpModules>
<customErrors defaultRedirect="/Error/Index" mode="On">
  <error statusCode="404" redirect="/Error/Index"/>
</customErrors>
<!--
    Enabling request validation in view pages would cause validation to occur
    after the input has already been processed by the controller. By default
    MVC performs request validation before a controller processes the input.
    To change this behavior apply the ValidateInputAttribute to a
    controller or action.
-->
<pages
    validateRequest="false"
    pageParserFilterType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewTypeParserFilter, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
    pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"
    userControlBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl, System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
  <controls>
    <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" namespace="System.Web.Mvc" tagPrefix="mvc" />
  </controls>
</pages>
</system.web>
<system.net>
<mailSettings>
  <smtp deliveryMethod="Network">
    <network host="smtp.gmail.com" port="587" defaultCredentials="false" userName="myUsername" enableSsl="true" password="myPassword"/>
  </smtp>
</mailSettings>
</system.net>
<elmah>
<errorMail   from="from@email.com"  to="to@email.com" subject="WDMS Error" async="true" smtpPort="587" useSsl="true"/>
</elmah>
<system.webServer>
<validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />

<handlers>
  <remove name="BlockViewHandler"/>
  <add name="BlockViewHandler" path="*" verb="*" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.HttpNotFoundHandler" />
  <add name="Elmah" verb="POST,GET,HEAD" path="elmah.axd" type="Elmah.ErrorLogPageFactory, Elmah"/>
</handlers>

<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
  <add name="ErrorLog" type="Elmah.ErrorLogModule, Elmah"/>
  <add name="ErrorMail" type="Elmah.ErrorMailModule, Elmah" />
  <add name="ErrorFilter" type="Elmah.ErrorFilterModule, Elmah" />
</modules>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

For some reason, It is not hitting my /Error/Index action when an error occurs in my application.

Is there something that is clearly wrong with this? Is there a way to define one generic error message action method in the global.asax Application_Error()?

Answer 1

You could use a completely different mechanism which ties Elmah into the standard MVC error handling attribute by extending it. This would allow you to display the Error.cshtml view for all application errors.

How to get ELMAH to work with ASP.NET MVC [HandleError] attribute?