Custom error code pages with message

Question

I am trying to create a custom error code page that displays a message I pass to it in my .NET Core MVC 1.1 application. I setup custom error code pages support in the Startup.cs class file and then created a simple view in a controller that does public IActionResult Example1 => NotFound("Some custom error message"). I expected this message to be pushed to the controller however this is not the case. Calling NotFound() without any parameters hits the error controller but as soon as I pass a message through, the controller is never used and a simple text message is displayed.

I could have sworn I used to do this in the past with classic .NET MVC but it has been awhile.

How can I have custom error code pages that display the proper error. I also need the ability in a controller to return the standard text or JSON response during the error for cases when I expect a JSON response (API actions and such). I am assuming there is a way to do this with a attribute but I have yet to find a way to do either of these tasks.

Answer 1

What you want is not possible. When you do something like return NotFound with a message, that message will be included in the response body only if it's left unmolested. When you do something like enable status code pages, the NotFound is simply caught by the middleware, and the request will simply be handed off to your error handling action to ultimately obtain the response. Importantly, that means your original NotFoundResult along with any custom message has been round-filed.