damned favicons

why oh why....

[dmmh]

....do they load so randomly?
Funny thing is, they seem to load just fine for this site on every page, even though I may not have the page bookmarked at all.

At apple.com, I cant even find a favicon in the head part and still its beeing displayed. I am not the only one strugling to perfect they way it shows (or doesnt, for that matter) thats for sure. Is there any known trick to make it show on all pages, regardless if its bookmarked or not?

[lZakl]

I just use this line in my header. Since the header is inserted as an include on every page, I don't really know if it wouldn't display on the pages that line isn't in. It's never given me problems though.

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="../favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />

-- Zak

[dmmh]

I use it like that too, but mine wont show :S

[tedster]

href="../favicon.ico"

If the page is one directory deeper in the directory structure than the favicon, then that is correct. I find it easier to use an absolute path to the favicon - that avoids copy/paste errors and template problems. When a site structure gets "deeper", it's not always easy to remember to change a relative path in the head section.

Browsers are supposed to automatically find the favicon if it's at the root. But there is something odd that goes on with some hosting servers and/or with some browsers and operating systems.

I haven't been able to pin down exactly what this "sometimes" problem is technically, but I find that using a <link> pointer in the head section with an absolute path helps to get consistent results.

[dmmh]

I know what happens. Checked my error logs and it shows me this:

[Tue Mar 15 09:09:04 2005] [error] [client 213.148.#*$!.xxx] File does not exist: /home/domain/public_html/db/favicon.ico

my link is like this:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.domain.com/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"/>

now why is it looking in a subdirectory?
this is strange. Even though the requesting page is in a subdomain, it should just follow the link ;>

[dmmh]

funny, if I request the page like: [domain.com...] it will show the favicon, if I use [db.domain.com...] it wont. #*$!

[loopylee]

try dragging the favicon from the address bar into an open space but DO NOT RELEASE and then drag back into the address bar. I have to do this TWICE for it to work but now it ALWAYS shows up in my address bar. This is for IE 6 Windows PC.

Good Luck

[Hester]

Ah, it looks like the favicon needs the actual server address, not the internet domain one. I find this occurs in coding PHP quite a lot. When you log on to your server via FTP to upload new pages, make a note of the physical address - eg:

myisp/accounts/web/index.php

Try using that instead of the root.

[dmmh]

try dragging the favicon from the address bar into an open space but DO NOT RELEASE and then drag back into the address bar. I have to do this TWICE for it to work but now it ALWAYS shows up in my address bar. This is for IE 6 Windows PC.

I dont want my visitors to do this to be able to see it...dont you think. It should just display.

[dmmh]

Ah, it looks like the favicon needs the actual server address, not the internet domain one. I find this occurs in coding PHP quite a lot. When you log on to your server via FTP to upload new pages, make a note of the physical address - eg:

so you mean use it like:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/home/domain/public_html/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"/>

thats odd dont you think, especially since this is going to be an relative url, which wont work on all pages.....

[Hester]

It might work, judging by the error message you gave.

The best idea is probably just to load the favicon into the root and let the browser find it. Or have links, but use a different one for each folder. (I often use two header versions, depending on whether the file is in the root or a folder.) Then put the whole URL in. (No "../" stuff.)