OPAC throws Internal Server Error when OpenSRF is not running

[Pasi Kallinen]

*EG master

apache log says:

egweb: Context Loader error: Can't use an undefined value as an ARRAY reference at /usr/local/share/perl/5.14.2/OpenILS/WWW/EGCatLoader/Util.pm line 100.

[Dan Scott (denials)]

"Internal server error" is a perfect description of the problem, actually, and we want Apache to throw that message (or something similarly stark) along with the 500 HTTP code when it happens.

I guess I would entertain a change to the Apache config that returns a prettier error page, but I personally would refuse to sign off on anything that would return a 200 HTTP code; that would simply be misleading.

[Pasi Kallinen (paxed)]

Definitely should not return OK, but crashing in Util.pm is also not good.

[Jason Stephenson (jstephenson)]

While I agree with your sentiment, Pasi, how else are we going to tell the admin that they need to run OpenSRF for Evergreen to work properly? This fact is already well documented. OpenSRF not running is a sure sign that Evergreen will not work. A 500 error and a crash in Util.pm are perfectly acceptable, since it is in fact a catastrophic failure.

[Pasi Kallinen (paxed)]

die() with an informative message would be better.

[Jason Stephenson (jstephenson)]

die() with an informative message would still lead to a 500, but I guess the Apache log message would be more useful.

If you want to provide a branch with the change, I'll be more than happy to test it.

[Thomas Berezansky (tsbere)]

Ideally egweb or egcatloader would detect that the system isn't available and fallback to a maintenance notice type page. "We're sorry, but the system is currently offline..." pulled from a semi-static TT2 file, perhaps?