id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
9464	404 section of tutorial part 3 is unclear, and not complete	Grahack	Jacob	"In [http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/intro/tutorial03/#write-a-404-page-not-found-view this section about 404] of the tutorial part 3, I find this list unclear.
  * The 404 view is also called if Django doesn't find a match after checking every regular expression in the URLconf.
  * If you don't define your own 404 view -- and simply use the default, which is recommended -- you still have one obligation: To create a `404.html` template in the root of your template directory. The default 404 view will use that template for all 404 errors.
  * If `DEBUG` is set to `True` (in your settings module) then your 404 view will never be used, and the traceback will be displayed instead.

I'd prefer starting with the last item. Also, when `DEBUG` is set to `False` and if you didn't create a `404.html` file, you get an error 500. I think this should be explained here.

I'd suggest:
  * If `DEBUG` is set to `True` (in your settings module) then your 404 view will never be used, and the traceback will be displayed instead.
  * The 404 view is also called if Django doesn't find a match after checking every regular expression in the URLconf.
  * If you don't define your own 404 view -- and simply use the default, which is recommended -- you still have one obligation: To create a `404.html` template in the root of your template directory. The default 404 view will use that template for all 404 errors.
  * If `DEBUG` is set to `False` (in your settings module) and if you didn't create a `404.html` file, an `Http500` is raised.

BTW I don't like this 500 feature but this is another story. I'd prefer the server to just send a 404 Not Found."		closed	Documentation			fixed	tutorial, error pages		Accepted	1	0	0	0	0	0