Symfony 2 404 Custom page for missing resource - .htaccess

Question

So, I have been trying to add a 404 controller in case an image is missing and I need to go and get it.
Initially, I tried a NotFoundHttpException/ResourceNotFoundException listener which loaded a class to deal with it. This worked great, if it was a Symfony2 routing issue.
Problem is, it isn't. It is a /web/bundles/mysite/images/missingimage.jpg 404, which is handled by Apache it seems.
So with .htaccess I tried:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}::$1 ^(/.+)/(.*)::\2$
RewriteRule ^(.*) - [E=BASE:%1]
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} ^$
RewriteRule ^app\.php(/(.*)|$) %{ENV:BASE}/$2 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule .? - [L]
RewriteRule .? %{ENV:BASE}/app.php [L]
ErrorDocument 404 /web/404.txt
</IfModule>
Just to see if I could get that to work, but I get the feeling it wouldn't and it didn't.
So how can I get my setup to forward to a Symfony2 page when it encounters a 404 within the /web folder.
I am guessing it should be .htaccess, but I am not having much look.
In the end, I want it to go to:
/web/app.php/FourZeroFourHandler/web/bundles/mysite/images/missingimage.jpg
or:
/web/app_dev.php/FourZeroFourHandler/web/bundles/mysite/images/missingimage.jpg
Depending on whether I am in prod or dev.
And ideas?

Answer 1

You have two options.
First one is to route all images via your Symfony2 app. The LiipImagineBundle does this in order to generate thumbnails. Like that you could redirect all 404 to your custom error page. Downside would be that even for a static image the whole Symfony2 kernel needs to be booted. That's time and resource expensive.
The second option is to redirect from Apache2 to a route that is unknown or to a route that throws a 404 / HttpNotFoundException:
/*
* #Route('/404', name="not_found")
*/
public function notFoundAction()
{
return new HttpNotFoundException();
}
That gives you more control over the error message since you can render a twig template or log an error message.
You are right. I also had some trouble with the custom controller when I inserted ErrorDocument in my .htaccess. The solution is to edit your vhost instead. Go to /etc/apache2/sites-available and select the file (by default it's called default) where your virtual host ist stored. Replace the AllowOverride option in the <Directory>. And replace it with these lines:
AllowOverride FileInfo
ErrorDocument 404 /not_found.html
Solution was found here. Don't forget to reload your apache configuration:
sudo service apache2 reload