ASP.NET customErrors with mode=remoteOnly and global.asax handling exceptions

Question

I have custom errors set in the web config file as follows:

<customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="GenericError.aspx" />

Fine and dandy... I like that mode="RemoteOnly" facilitates development...

For unhandled exceptions, I have in global.asax:

Sub Application_Error(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    Response.Redirect("GenericError.aspx")
End Sub

However, unhandled exceptions are going to the generic error page instead of the informative yellow screen of death preferred by developers. I can comment out the redirect in global.asax, but then I need to remember to change it for the production environment. Is there a way I can check in Application_Error whether I am remote or not to determine whether to redirect?

Answer 1

You shouldn't even need the line in Application_Error if you have the defaultRedirect set in your web.config.

Answer 2

You do not need the Response.Redirect in the Global.asax. It duplicates the behaviour of the <customErrors> tag. RemoteOnly will give end users the custom error message and local usrs the standard asp.net error page. If your developers use a local web server for development you have both in one.

Another approach is to set the <customErrors> to Off on development servers and set it to On in the production environment. There are usually many items in the web.config that need changing so it is no more of a hardship.