dont-reprocess-jct-404s

Use the dont-reprocess-jct-404s stanza entry to control whether WebSEAL reprocesses requests that fail with an HTTP 404 error by prepending the junction name to the URL.

dont-reprocess-jct-404s = {yes|no}

Description

If a resource cannot be found on a back-end server, that server returns an HTTP 404 error. The dont-reprocess-jct-404s stanza entry controls whether or not WebSEAL processes the request again by prepending the junction name to the URL.

You should never need to enable this stanza entry if you follow this best practice for junctions: The junction name should not match any directory name used in the Web space of the back-end server if HTML pages from that server contain programs (such as JavaScript or applets) with server-relative URLs to that directory.

The following scenario can occur when one does not adhere to this best practice for junctions:

1. A resource is located in the following subdirectory (using the same name as the junction) on the back-end server: /jct/page.html.
2. A page received by the client from this back-end server contains the following URL: /jct/page.html.
3. When the link is followed, WebSEAL can immediately process the request because it recognizes what it thinks is the junction name in the URL. No configured URL modification technique is required.
4. At the time the request is forwarded to the back-end server, the junction name (/jct) removed from the URL. The resource (/page.html) is not found at the root of the back-end server file system. The server returns a 404 error.
5. If WebSEAL is configured for dont-reprocess-jct-404s=no, it reprocesses the URL and prepends the junction name to the original URL: /jct/jct/page.html.
6. Now the resource is successfully located at /jct/page.html on the back-end server.

Notes:

• The default behavior in WebSEAL is to reprocess a request URL after an HTTP 404 error is returned from the back-end server. You can set the value of dont-reprocess-jct-404s to yes to override this default behavior.
• If the reprocess-root-jct-404s entry (also in the [junction] stanza) has been set to yes then root junction resource requests that result in a HTTP 404 error will be reprocessed regardless of the setting of this dont-reprocess-jct-404s stanza entry.

Options

yes	When the back-end server returns an HTTP 404 error, do not reprocess the request URL.
no	When the back-end server returns an HTTP 404 error, reprocess the request URL by prepending the junction name to the existing URL.

Usage: Required.

Default:

The default value in the template configuration file is yes.

Example:

dont-reprocess-jct-404s = yes

Parent topic: [junction] stanza