How can I redirect to 404.php when the page doesn't really exist?

Question

I have this 404 redirection in my .htaccess file :

ErrorDocument 404 /404.php

It works fine when I try to access a page that doesn't really exist on my server.

The problem is that when I return my own HTTP 404 status in a page that really exists on the server, it doesn't redirect me to the 404.php page, but the browser displays a standard 404 error.

I return my own HTTP 404 status when I have a wrong url parameter for example.

Can you help me to define the rule in the .htaccess file, please?

Answer 1

in your .htaccess file you should have this rule

RewriteEngine On
ErrorDocument 404 /404.php

and if you want to simulate this error in anyplace other than typing it manually in the header you should use http_response_code

PHP code

<?php
    http_response_code(404);
    include('my_404.php'); // provide your own HTML for the error page
    die();