Yes, the
servlet specification provides a specific means of doing this:
<web-app>
...
<error-page>
<error-code>404</error-code>
<location>/MyCustomErrorPage.html</location>
</error-page>
...
</web-app>
All Servlet 2.2 or 2.3 compliant containers are required to implement this. Note that this entry must be in the correct place in the web.xml, after all the <servlet> and <servlet-mapping> elements.
It is worth downloading the DTD and looking through it. There are a number of features available that are not widely known. You can download it from
http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/web-app_2_2.dtd The servlet 2.3 DTD is found at
http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd ------------------
Phil Hanna
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform
Author of :
JSP: The Complete Reference Instant Java Servlets
Phil Hanna<BR>Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform<BR>Author of :<BR><A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072127686/electricporkchop/107-3548162-1137317" TARGET=_blank rel="nofollow">JSP: The Complete Reference</A><BR><A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072124253/electricporkchop/107-3548162-1137317" TARGET=_blank rel="nofollow">Instant Java Servlets</A>