Is it possible to include a custom 404 view for a Django app without changing anything at the project level?

Question

I'm creating a Django app and trying to have it touch the containing project in as few places as possible.

I've created a custom 404 view which works as expected but only when I add handler404 to the project-level urls.py.

I want the custom 404 view that I've written to apply to this particular app only, but from the information I've come across it appears that this may not be possible. Adding handler404 to the app-level urls.py does not have any effect.

Does Django support custom 404 views at the application level?

Answer 1

Instead of finishing your view with:

return render_to_response(...)

Get the response object and check its status:

out = render_to_response(...)

if out.status_code==404:
    # redirect to your 404 page
else:
    return out