HTTP Messages

[onehundredandtwo]

I remember someone else mentioning this some time ago, but I would like to mention it here, since it seems appropiate mentioning it here. At the moment, phpBB will always send HTTP/1.1 200 OK, even if a 404, 503, 401 or 500 would be more appropiate. These errors are important for bots as well as user-agents to understand the request and what to do with it.

Code: Select all

Errors such as [i]The selected forum does not exist[/i] and [i]The selected topic does not exist[/i] should send a 404 Not Found error.

If the board is disabled, all phpBB related pages should send a 503 Service Unavailable error.

If the user tries to access a forum he/she is not allowed to access (eg. incorrect password, incorrect permissions) then a 401 Unauthorized error should be sent.

If phpBB gets a E_USER_ERROR then phpBB should send a 500 Internal Server Error.

Feedback welcome.

[naderman]

Sounds very reasonable. Maybe you can add it on the wiki to the phpBB4 section somewhere?

[bantu]

Not so sure if this is an issue anymore, but please keep in mind: http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/phpbb3/34945#post158995

[onehundredandtwo]

Not so sure if this is an issue anymore, but please keep in mind: http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/phpbb3/34945#post158995

I will do some more research on that, however I don't believe this applies to 500 Internal Server Error and 503 Service Unavailable, since these often apply to the entire board.

[onehundredandtwo]

I've looked all over the internet and I've asked at the Google Webmaster Forum, and apparently using 404 errors on dymanic URLs is fine. I might try testing on a site to see what happens, but from what I can see there isn't really a problem.

[ToonArmy]

Not so sure if this is an issue anymore, but please keep in mind: http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/phpbb3/34945#post158995

The RFC's would be the place to consult.

[Desdenova]

Probably should throw a 401 on unauthorized ACP access as well, I'd guess.