Searching for a non existent user leads to 404

[Tom Hanika]

The result of a search for a non-existing user should not be a 404.

"User not found" or "User unknown" would be more appropriate.

[Andreas Hotho]

A user is a page and therefore a 404 fits perfectly. A user not found allows to test our database.

[Stephan Doerfel]

From a user perspective I agree with Tom. Entering a user name in the user search should not result in a page that looks like something is broken. As a user I perceive the search like the search in google ;-) And google tells me that it could not find content for my request rather than that pages were not found on the server. We can still send 404 but with a more user-friendly message and without the "its-broken"-looking image.

@ @hotho: Doesn't the current situation allow testing our database as well? A user page that is not found == A user that does not exist?

[Andreas Hotho]

Ok, I see the arguments: How about the same behaviour as for the search http://www.bibsonomy.org/search/hallolkjfalsdfjlasdjfldas Every request gives a 200 and either with content or without.

[Robert Jäschke]

I think this one is easy to solve. We return a 404 HTTP header but a page with a meaningful explanation. So we don't break the HTTP protocol and still satisfy the user. What do you think?

[Andreas Hotho]

ok

[Daniel Zoller]

see #1903

[Thomas Niebler]

OK, so I simply implement a view that nicely states that the requested user could not be found, but returns a 404 error code? I'd do the same with the cv page.

[Robert Jäschke]

sounds good

[Thomas Niebler]

fixing #1903 and #2613 added UserNotFoundException and made StaticViewController ErrorAware. not yet beautiful, but working for now.

→ <<cset e5bb9cfedf26>>

[Thomas Niebler]

What am I supposed to do about this? It's present in the 1903-2613-better404pages branch.