Customize ArcGIS Web Adaptor error messages

Summary

Sometimes, users would like to customize an error message returned from the ArcGIS Web Adaptor. For example, let's say that the user wants to modify the following error message that they get when the Portal for ArcGIS service is stopped:

Could not access any ArcGIS Enterprise portal machines. Please contact your system administrator.

Note:
This article only applies to versions older than 11.x.

Procedure

Modify the resource file in Windows

1. Create a backup of the file "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\<webadaptorname>\App_GlobalResources\webAdaptor.en.resx"
2. Open the file with Notepad.

Note:
If using a language other than English, make a backup of the appropriate file. For example, if using French, use the file  "webAdaptor.fr.resx", and then open it in Notepad.

3. Find the error message that you want to change, in this example:

<value>Could not access any ArcGIS Enterprise portal machines. Please contact your system administrator.</value>

4. Replace it with the desired string, as follows:

<value>ArcGIS Enterprise portal is currently under maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.</value>

5. Refresh the page to find the new error message, as shown below:

Modify the resource file in Linux

1. Open the directory of the web server, for example, let's say the client is using Apache Tomcat Web Server and its path is /data/tomcat
2. Change the directory to the following path:

cd /data/tomcat/webapps/<webadaptorname>/WEB_INF/classes/res

3. Make a backup of the messages.properties file.
4. Use a text editor to open the file:

nano messages.properties

Note:
If using a language other than English, make a backup of the appropriate file. For example, if using French, use the "messages_fr.properties" file.

5. Find the error message that you want to change:

portal_cannot_proxy=Could not access any ArcGIS Enterprise portal machines. Please contact your system administrator.

6. Replace it with the desired string:

portal_cannot_proxy=ArcGIS Enterprise portal is currently under maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.

7. Restart the Tomcat service:

systemctl restart tomcat

8. Refresh the page to find the new error, shown in the image below: