Change the favicon?

Herrgeist

Not that I don't love Vanilla's default icon. It looks great. I wish I could design mine that nicely. How do I change the favicon? Does it matter if I'm in default or using a theme?

adrian.

create a 16x16 bitmap image rename to favicon.ico put it where appropriate on the ftp server.

Herrgeist

That part I understand. I replaced the default favicon with my custom favicon in both the default and custom themes and it didn't change. I also looked all over the Vanilla folder for other favicons and did not find any, so it only makes sense to me that there is something else I have to do in order to get the Vanilla favicon to change. I've heard something about putting a simple HTML line into the header of the index page, but I'm not sure if that's the answer I'm looking for in this case. If it is, I don't know which file I need to put that code in. Inserting the code isn't a problem as long as I can figure out where to put it. I only ask because I don't want to dissect all of this if there is an easy answer.

Yeah, I'm lazy. Or better yet, I don't have time to hunt through all these files to figure it out.

WallPhone

CTRL+F5, to force your browser to hard-refresh. The old favicon is still in your browser's cache.

That HTML line you mention is in the first 4-5 lines of the HTML source, so that points to the file that needs to be changed.

Herrgeist

I did the hard refresh and nothing happened. Is there a separate cache that controls where the favicon image would be? I believe Opera has something like this but not Firefox or IE6+.

I've looked through all the files I could think of that might control this and, of course, I'm not finding the line I need to edit. I also looked through all the images hosted on my server and did not find anything that resembled the favicon. I figured maybe it was a .gif favicon. I've seen them in other places.

I'm lost. I'm not quite ignorant when it comes to this stuff and I'm pretty stumped.

jimw

I've had success with changing the ico in a style folder. You might want to try that.

Herrgeist

I guess that's the problem. I can't find the ico to change.

jimw

There should be one in every style that you are using. So, you can modify the existing one for the style or create your own as adrian suggested above and then copy it into your style folder that you are using.

Herrgeist

That's just it... there isn't one. I'm using a modified version of the BlackDiamond style and I've also looked in the default style folder. In both of these, I don't see any ico files. I also viewed all the .gif files in those folders because I know some sites use .gif style favicons and none of those matched the Vanilla favicon, so there was nothing to edit.

I'm trying to figure out where the Vanilla default favicon is hosted and then I can edit it.

jimw

If you look in the default style folder, you should see it.

Minisweeper

I have one in :
\themes\vanilla\styles\default
overwrite the one in there if you're using the default style, otherwise put it in the folder for the style you're using (or both, even)
If you're sure it's there maybe get someone else to check and see if they see the new one?

Herrgeist

I tried it from another computer and I could see my custom favicon. I'm using Firefox and IE7 on this machine but I cannot get the new one to appear. I've cleared the cache and given it the hard refresh a few times. Still nothin.

At least I know others can see it.

tell me if you can http://www.theevaudevillains.com/forums

Waterskiaddict

i can see it

Herrgeist

arg! oh well. that's what matters haha

thanks

Krak

Not really related to a favicon, but kind of. I found this a while back its pretty neat to have. http://www.telegraphics.com.au/svn/icoformat/trunk/dist/README.html Lets you save as .ICO in photoshop.

Herrgeist

I've already got that. I'm in love with Photoshop so I had to have it.

Herrgeist

It's working now. I had to dig and delete a few things that were being stubborn but now it's all working. Thanks for the advice everyone. I've archived all this for future snafu's where things like this may apply.

JDW

Herrgeist, what exactly did you do to get it working? I myself have replaced favicon.ico in themes/vanilla/styles/default/ and I also put a copy of my favicon.ico in the root folder where I have all my Vanilla files and folders stored. I've refreshed my browser cache and even launch a browser that I hadn't used in months (which never cached my new vanilla forum) and I still cannot see my favicon. So some specifics on what you did exactly to fix the problem would be greatly appreciated, not only for myself but for all those who may follow in our footsteps and find this thread seeking solutions. Thank you.

JDW

Well, with no replies to my last post in 4 days, it's clear few of us care to change the favicon!! I am happy to report though that my tinkering has found a solution. You will need to edit the following file (I recommend TextWranger on OS X to do the editing): /themes/head.php Look for the following line inside head.php: <link rel="shortcut icon" href="'.$this->Context->StyleUrl.'favicon.ico" />'; Add a slash just in front of favicon.ico, which makes the line look like this: <link rel="shortcut icon" href="'.$this->Context->StyleUrl.'/favicon.ico" />'; So long as you have your own favicon saved inside the /themes directory, it should work. Without the slash in front of favicon.ico, the default vanilla icon will appear, even if you deleted it from your server! Hope this helps some people.

zugster

JDW: You saved my day :-)

JDW

I only came across that solution after yanking quite a number of hairs from my head. I then toyed with the slash and was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked! Amazingly simple. Disturbingly simple. This is clearly a bug that needs to be addressed in the next revision of Vanilla. We really shouldn't have to resort to this sort of fix by hand! But until Vanilla itself is fixed, we have no choice but to either fix the broken code or live with a broken favicon!