Thread: Database Error Catch and Redirect

I had an issue the other day where my SQL server went offline and the website displayed an ugly error page. On sites I have written in the past I would put a catch on either the first database call or do a specific database call at page load to redirect to a sitedown.htm page if the database connection failed.

Where would the best place be in the code for me to write such a method? I have tried it at the page level and in the template.ascx file but that doesn't catch the error. I assume that it is somewhere in the skinbase or is it higher up?

Thank you.

Ok, I didn't think this all the way through. So just in case anyone else has a brain freeze and is looking to do this it is real simple. In classic .asp I would confirm the database connection and redirect if there was a problem. In asp.net I just set the defaultRedirect="sitedown.htm" in the web.Config in the CustomErrors section. I also had the 404 redirect that goes to the PageNotFound.aspx page.

I don't know why that didn't occur to me when i posted that this morning.. I guess I was just thinking back to how I used to do it back with classic .asp.