Custom 404 page doesn't show when needed

[pulazio]

Hi everyone,

Processwire is in the following folder in my server: var/www/html/project/processwire

I've got the following configuration in my .htaccess:

#################################################################################################
# START PROCESSWIRE HTACCESS DIRECTIVES
# @version 2.2
#################################################################################################

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Don't show directory indexes, but do follow symbolic links 
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Options -Indexes
Options +FollowSymLinks

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Let ProcessWire handle 404s
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Handle request for missing favicon.ico/robots.txt files (no ending quote for Apache 1.3)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<Files favicon.ico>
  ErrorDocument 404 "The requested file favicon.ico was not found.
</Files>

<Files robots.txt>
  ErrorDocument 404 "The requested file robots.txt was not found.
</Files>

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Protect ProcessWire system files (part 1)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<FilesMatch "\.(inc|info|module|sh|sql)$|^(\..*)$">
  Order allow,deny
</FilesMatch>

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Override a few PHP settings that can't be changed at runtime (not required)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<IfModule mod_php5.c>
  php_flag magic_quotes_gpc		off
  php_flag magic_quotes_sybase		off
  php_flag register_globals		off
</IfModule>

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Set default directory index files
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# ProcessWire requires mod_rewrite
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

  RewriteEngine On

  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Set an environment variable so the installer can detect that mod_rewrite is active.
  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  SetEnv HTTP_MOD_REWRITE On

  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Optional: Set a rewrite base if rewrites aern't working properly on your server.
  # And if your site directory starts with a "~" you will most likely have to use this.
  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  # RewriteBase /
  # RewriteBase /pw/
  # RewriteBase /~user/

  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Access Restrictions: Keep web users out of dirs that begin with a period
  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  RewriteRule "(^|/)\." - [F]

  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Optional: Redirect users to the 'www.' version of the site (uncomment to enable).
  # For example: http://processwire.com/ would be redirected to http://www.processwire.com/
  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
  # RewriteRule ^ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Access Restrictions: Protect ProcessWire system files (part 2)
  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)\.htaccess$ [NC,OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)(site|site-[^/]+)/assets/(cache|logs|backups|sessions|config|install)($|/.*$) [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)(site|site-[^/]+)/install($|/.*$) [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)(wire|site|site-[^/]+)/(config|index\.config|config-dev)\.php$ [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)(wire|site|site-[^/]+)/templates-admin($|/|/.*\.(php|html?|tpl|inc))$ [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)(site|site-[^/]+)/templates($|/|/.*\.(php|html?|tpl|inc))$ [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)(site|site-[^/]+)/assets($|/|/.*\.php)$ [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)wire/(core|modules)/.*\.(php|inc|tpl|module)$ [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)(site|site-[^/]+)/modules/.*\.(php|inc|tpl|module)$ [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)(COPYRIGHT|INSTALL|README|htaccess)\.txt$ [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (^|/)site-default/
  RewriteRule ^.*$ - [F,L]

  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  # Ensure that the URL follows the name-format specification required by ProcessWire
  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} "^/~?[-_.a-zA-Z0-9/]*$"

  # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # If the request is for a file or directory that physically exists on the server,
  # then don't give control to ProcessWire, and instead load the file
  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !(favicon\.ico|robots\.txt)

  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  # Optional: Don't send missing image requests to ProcessWire (uncomment below to enable).
  # This might be helpful if you are launching a new site and lots of images have moved. 
  # It will reduce the load on the server not to have ProcessWire trying to serve those requests.
  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

  # RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.(gif|jpg|png|ico)$ [NC]

  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  # Pass control to ProcessWire if all the above directives allow us to this point.
  # For regular VirtualHosts (most installs)
  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?it=$1 [L,QSA]

  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  # If using VirtualDocumentRoot: comment out the one above and use this one instead.
  # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  # RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?it=$1 [L,QSA]

</IfModule>

#################################################################################################
# END PROCESSWIRE HTACCESS DIRECTIVES
#################################################################################################

and the following on my Apache server config:

<VirtualHost *:80>

        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html/project/processwire

        <Directory /var/www/html/project/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride All
            Require all granted
        </Directory>

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

        <IfModule mod_dir.c>
            DirectoryIndex index.php index.pl index.cgi index.html index.xhtml index.htm
        </IfModule>

</VirtualHost>

My website opens normally, but when I try something broken like https://mywebsite.com/dfvjdbvknbk it opens a standard apache 404 page and not my custom one. My custom 404 page is inside processwire/site/templates

Can anyone help me understand what is broken here?

Thanks in advance!

[wbmnfktr]

A custom 404 page is way easier to achieve than this way.

So first of all undo all changes in .htaccess and your Apache conf. 

Here is your solution:

1. place your custom template in /site/templates/
2. go to Setup > Templates and add your new custom404.php
3. edit your 404 page under Pages and go to the Settings tab
4. change the template to custom404.php

That should do the trick already.