<p>On a default Craft install if I'm logged out and hit the front-end of the site with purposefully messed up database credentials, I get a nicely styled Craft 404 page if there is no <code>craft/templates/404.html</code> and a front-end 404 page if there is.</p>

<p>I believe the issue is that you've got your own front-end 404 template that's also trying to access the database and it can't.</p>

<p>So basically the first error is thrown (can't access the database), then another error happens (I <em>really</em> can't access the database) when trying to tell you about the first error.</p>

<p>By this point, Yii thinks the error has already been handled, so it falls back to <a href="https://github.com/yiisoft/yii/blob/1.1.15/framework/base/CApplication.php#L924" rel="nofollow">CApplication->displayException()</a>.  I assume in this case, some content header or encoding isn't set properly and you see the garbled ’ character.</p>

<p>So until/if we can think of a way to guard against this scenario, your best bet is to make sure that your 404 template isn't triggering a database call.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-03T01:22:56.607Z
2014-12-03T01:22:56.607Z
Brad Bell
<p>Is it possible to route to a nice "Site is currently offline" error page if there is an issue connecting to the database?</p>

<p>Currently you'll see something like the message below which isn't very customer friendly.</p>

<pre><code>An exception has been thrown during the rendering of a template ("Craft canâ€™t connect to the database with the credentials in craft/config/db.php.") 
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-02T17:48:42.963Z
The part about this that always bugs me the most is the weird non-apostrophe in `canâ€™t`.
Lindsey D
<database><error-message>
Change message if database error
# Change message if database error

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-12-02)

Is it possible to route to a nice "Site is currently offline" error page if there is an issue connecting to the database?
Currently you'll see something like the message below which isn't very customer friendly.
An exception has been thrown during the rendering of a template ("Craft canâ€™t connect to the database with the credentials in craft/config/db.php.")

**Tags:** database, error-message

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The part about this that always bugs me the most is the weird non-apostrophe in `canâ€™t`.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-12-03. Score: 1

On a default Craft install if I'm logged out and hit the front-end of the site with purposefully messed up database credentials, I get a nicely styled Craft 404 page if there is no `craft/templates/404.html` and a front-end 404 page if there is.

I believe the issue is that you've got your own front-end 404 template that's also trying to access the database and it can't.

So basically the first error is thrown (can't access the database), then another error happens (I *really* can't access the database) when trying to tell you about the first error.

By this point, Yii thinks the error has already been handled, so it falls back to [CApplication->displayException()](https://github.com/yiisoft/yii/blob/1.1.15/framework/base/CApplication.php#L924). I assume in this case, some content header or encoding isn't set properly and you see the garbled ’ character.

So until/if we can think of a way to guard against this scenario, your best bet is to make sure that your 404 template isn't triggering a database call.


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