It's simpler than I initially thought.. Basically you have a page that does nothing, until the data you want to send is available (say, a new message arrives).
Here is a really basic example, which sends a simple string after 2-10 seconds. 1 in 3 chance of returning an error 404 (to show error handling in the coming Javascript example)
msgsrv.php
<?php
if(rand(1,3) == 1){
/* Fake an error */
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
die();
}
/* Send a string after a random number of seconds (2-10) */
sleep(rand(2,10));
echo("Hi! Have a random number: " . rand(1,10));
?>
Note: With a real site, running this on a regular web-server like Apache will quickly tie up all the "worker threads" and leave it unable to respond to other requests.. There are ways around this, but it is recommended to write a "long-poll server" in something like Python's twisted, which does not rely on one thread per request. cometD is an popular one (which is available in several languages), and Tornado is a new framework made specifically for such tasks (it was built for FriendFeed's long-polling code)... but as a simple example, Apache is more than adequate! This script could easily be written in any language (I chose Apache/PHP as they are very common, and I happened to be running them locally)
Then, in Javascript, you request the above file (msg_srv.php
), and wait for a response. When you get one, you act upon the data. Then you request the file and wait again, act upon the data (and repeat)
What follows is an example of such a page.. When the page is loaded, it sends the initial request for the msgsrv.php
file.. If it succeeds, we append the message to the #messages
div, then after 1 second we call the waitForMsg function again, which triggers the wait.
The 1 second setTimeout()
is a really basic rate-limiter, it works fine without this, but if msgsrv.php
always returns instantly (with a syntax error, for example) - you flood the browser and it can quickly freeze up. This would better be done checking if the file contains a valid JSON response, and/or keeping a running total of requests-per-minute/second, and pausing appropriately.
If the page errors, it appends the error to the #messages
div, waits 15 seconds and then tries again (identical to how we wait 1 second after each message)
The nice thing about this approach is it is very resilient. If the clients internet connection dies, it will timeout, then try and reconnect - this is inherent in how long polling works, no complicated error-handling is required
Anyway, the long_poller.htm
code, using the jQuery framework:
<html>
<head>
<title>BargePoller</title>
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
body{ background:#000;color:#fff;font-size:.9em; }
.msg{ background:#aaa;padding:.2em; border-bottom:1px #000 solid}
.old{ background-color:#246499;}
.new{ background-color:#3B9957;}
.error{ background-color:#992E36;}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
function addmsg(type, msg){
/* Simple helper to add a div.
type is the name of a CSS class (old/new/error).
msg is the contents of the div */
$("#messages").append(
"<div class='msg "+ type +"'>"+ msg +"</div>"
);
}
function waitForMsg(){
/* This requests the url "msgsrv.php"
When it complete (or errors)*/
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: "msgsrv.php",
async: true, /* If set to non-async, browser shows page as "Loading.."*/
cache: false,
timeout:50000, /* Timeout in ms */
success: function(data){ /* called when request to barge.php completes */
addmsg("new", data); /* Add response to a .msg div (with the "new" class)*/
setTimeout(
waitForMsg, /* Request next message */
1000 /* ..after 1 seconds */
);
},
error: function(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown){
addmsg("error", textStatus + " (" + errorThrown + ")");
setTimeout(
waitForMsg, /* Try again after.. */
15000); /* milliseconds (15seconds) */
}
});
};
$(document).ready(function(){
waitForMsg(); /* Start the inital request */
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="messages">
<div class="msg old">
BargePoll message requester!
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
The code is taken from http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/shay/archive/2009/03/06/real-world-error-hadnling-in-asp-net-mvc-rc2.aspx and works in ASP.net MVC 1.0 as well
Here's how I handle http exceptions:
protected void Application_Error(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Exception exception = Server.GetLastError();
// Log the exception.
ILogger logger = Container.Resolve<ILogger>();
logger.Error(exception);
Response.Clear();
HttpException httpException = exception as HttpException;
RouteData routeData = new RouteData();
routeData.Values.Add("controller", "Error");
if (httpException == null)
{
routeData.Values.Add("action", "Index");
}
else //It's an Http Exception, Let's handle it.
{
switch (httpException.GetHttpCode())
{
case 404:
// Page not found.
routeData.Values.Add("action", "HttpError404");
break;
case 500:
// Server error.
routeData.Values.Add("action", "HttpError500");
break;
// Here you can handle Views to other error codes.
// I choose a General error template
default:
routeData.Values.Add("action", "General");
break;
}
}
// Pass exception details to the target error View.
routeData.Values.Add("error", exception);
// Clear the error on server.
Server.ClearError();
// Avoid IIS7 getting in the middle
Response.TrySkipIisCustomErrors = true;
// Call target Controller and pass the routeData.
IController errorController = new ErrorController();
errorController.Execute(new RequestContext(
new HttpContextWrapper(Context), routeData));
}
Best Answer
Don't render 404 yourself, there's no reason to; Rails has this functionality built in already. If you want to show a 404 page, create a
render_404
method (ornot_found
as I called it) inApplicationController
like this:Rails also handles
AbstractController::ActionNotFound
, andActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
the same way.This does two things better:
1) It uses Rails' built in
rescue_from
handler to render the 404 page, and 2) it interrupts the execution of your code, letting you do nice things like:without having to write ugly conditional statements.
As a bonus, it's also super easy to handle in tests. For example, in an rspec integration test:
And minitest:
OR refer more info from Rails render 404 not found from a controller action