Bug: Loading GitHub default 404

[terichadbourne]

Just spotted this note from @zebateira on an older PR that's already been merged. When we changed the routing I believe we created fewer cases in which we can load our own 404, so we'll need to set up an alternative via GitHub for cases where, for example, the # is omitted from the URL.

Ah nice catch!

Interestingly hitting a GitHub-generated 404 and not our own - will this case be fixed by the routing PR you have in progress by any chance?

hm no, unfortunately, when you access any route besides / you will get github's 404.
but we can customize it using: https://help.github.com/en/github/working-with-github-pages/creating-a-custom-404-page-for-your-github-pages-site

[zebateira]

Actually, if i'm not mistaken, only when you omit the # will you get Gitbhub's 404 page, and this was happening before the refactor since this is a problem with the current build system.

[zebateira]

We can probably create a page that redirects to /#/404 when github catches a 404.

[terichadbourne]

Are you envisioning using JavaScript within script tags in the HTML file to change window.location? Or some other method?

I started trying to play with this but I can't preview it properly.

On the real site, leaving out the # does this:

But on localhost it adds a #/ to the end and shows the homepage. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Both the live site and localhost go to our custom 404 page if you try to access /#/nonsense.

[zebateira]

@terichadbourne this is a problem with the current build system: we are only building one single index.html file that serves the root path /, so the 404 needs to be configured within github pages (server side) as per the documentation which actually relies on that 404.md file which I think should contain:

---
permalink: /#/404

But I might be wrong since the example in the docs uses the 404.html example.

[zebateira]

After researching this issue a bit I stumbled upon a really cool hack that enables no-hash routing in github pages! It's working locally: #393
This also fixes this 404 issue as well.

[terichadbourne]

Quick update: since #393 is more broad and affects a number of interrelated URL-ish issues (anchor tags, SEO, hash v history, hosting options, separate meta tags per page, redirects from GH 404), we've decided to instead (for now) create a 404.html to redirect the GitHub default as mentioned earlier in this trail and circle back later to ensure we're making the right decision for those interrelated issues.