3 ms·

Favicon checker

64 points by ttty 12y ago

gulpahum 12y ago
I learned that IE11 looks for "browserconfig.xml" for pinned tile icons. So, if your site gets requests for that file, then blame IE11. Why Microsoft has to do this kind of crap? "Note: If a webpage does not specify a browser configuration file, IE11 automatically looks for "browserconfig.xml" in the root directory of the server. To prevent this, use an "msapplication-config" header with the content attribute to "none" (shown earlier)." http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/dn320426(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/dn320426(v=vs.85)...
- JohnTHaller 12y ago
  > Why Microsoft has to do this kind of crap? Same reason Apple made up random image names for bookmark icons on the homescreen on the iPad and now they pollute our logs.
  - gulpahum 12y ago
    You are right. Apple is also bad. The whole favicon retrieval seems to be a mess. I wish the W3C draft about manifests for web apps gets wide support and can be used on normal sites, too. (wishful thinking...?) http://w3c.github.io/manifest/ http://w3c.github.io/manifest/
    - davnola 12y ago
      Or well-known URIs http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5785 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5785
- Gracana 12y ago
  Why is this so bad?
  - chill1 12y ago
    Because that's one more request that your web server will have to handle. And, if logging is enabled, each of those requests will create a log entry for the 404 error. And, apparently, to prevent the errant request from IE11, you have to add a specialized header for each response from your web server, requiring additional bandwidth of your web server and users.
TamDenholm 12y ago
Forever ago i created http://allthefavicons.com/ http://allthefavicons.com/ in a similar vein. I've not touched it in years, but it still gets a few hundred uniques a month, strangely, mainly from Japan.
- yarri 12y ago
  Ummm... I think this just crashed under the HN load: Warning: mkdir(): No space left on device in /home/tam/Dropbox/Webserver/allthefavicons/htdocs/classes/allthefavicons.class.php on line 19 Warning: mkdir(): No such file or directory in /home/tam/Dropbox/Webserver/allthefavicons/htdocs/classes/allthefavicons.class.php on line 20
gioele 12y ago
Please note that there is a wrong suggestion in the site: > Why is favicon.ico not declared in the HTML code? > Looking for some sample favicon code, you've probably encountered: > <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="favicon.ico"> > Why is it not present in the code generated by RealFaviconGenerator? Because it somehow disrupts some other browsers like Chrome. And since IE looks for a file named favicon.ico anyway, the best solution is to not even talk about it. This is described by Jonathan T. Neal and Mathias Bynens. This is a bad advice, please continue using rel="shortcut icon" to indicate where the favicon is. W3C says so [1], the WHATWG agrees (or "permits")[2], and is needed on Android [3]. [1] http://www.w3.org/2005/10/howto-favicon http://www.w3.org/2005/10/howto-favicon [2] http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/links.html#rel-icon http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/... [3] http://www.mollerus.net/tom/blog/2010/06/web_app_homescreen_icons_in_android.html http://www.mollerus.net/tom/blog/2010/06/web_app_homescreen_...
- maaaats 12y ago
  They tell you insert 14 lines or so in your html anyway.
- michaelmior 12y ago
  Here's some references I found from Jonathan and Mathias. http://www.jonathantneal.com/blog/understand-the-favicon/ http://www.jonathantneal.com/blog/understand-the-favicon/ http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/rel-shortcut-icon http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/rel-shortcut-icon http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/touch-icons http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/touch-icons
mp4box 12y ago
Warning: XSS http://realfavicongenerator.net/favicon_checker?site=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28%22xss%22%29;%3C/script%3E http://realfavicongenerator.net/favicon_checker?site=%3Cscri...
- ToastyMallows 12y ago
  Didn't work for me, maybe it's fixed already?
  - azdle 12y ago
    Worked for me in FF just now.
    - ttty 12y ago
      chrome doesn't work
      - ctz 12y ago
        Chrome's XSS auditor catches it: The XSS Auditor refused to execute a script in 'http://realfavicongenerator.net/favicon_checker?site=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28%22xss%22%29;%3C/script%3E' because its source code was found within the request. The auditor was enabled as the server sent neither an 'X-XSS-Protection' nor 'Content-Security-Policy' header.
psychometry 12y ago
I've found that image-to-favicon generators generally don't work very well. They're fine for generating the larger icons but the 16x16 ones generally look like crap. Those really require some tweaking on the pixel-level and require design skills not many people have, so I usually favor simpler favicons that can be manually created with a graphics editor.
gee_totes 12y ago
Thanks for building this! Before, I was using a hackey Perl script[0] and was thinking: "boy, I really hope someone builds a website to do this for me" [0]https://coderwall.com/p/ka3lia?i=2&p=1&q=author%3Ageetotes&t%5B%5D=geetotes https://coderwall.com/p/ka3lia?i=2&p=1&q=author%3Ageetotes&t...

64 points by ttty 12y ago

I learned that IE11 looks for "browserconfig.xml" for pinned tile icons. So, if your site gets requests for that file, then blame IE11. Why Microsoft has to do this kind of crap? "Note: If a webpage does not specify a browser configuration file, IE11 automatically looks for "browserconfig.xml" in the root directory of the server. To prevent this, use an "msapplication-config" header with the content attribute to "none" (shown earlier)." http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/dn320426(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/dn320426(v=vs.85)...

JohnTHaller 12y ago
> Why Microsoft has to do this kind of crap? Same reason Apple made up random image names for bookmark icons on the homescreen on the iPad and now they pollute our logs.
- gulpahum 12y ago
  You are right. Apple is also bad. The whole favicon retrieval seems to be a mess. I wish the W3C draft about manifests for web apps gets wide support and can be used on normal sites, too. (wishful thinking...?) http://w3c.github.io/manifest/ http://w3c.github.io/manifest/
  - davnola 12y ago
    Or well-known URIs http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5785 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5785
Gracana 12y ago
Why is this so bad?
- chill1 12y ago
  Because that's one more request that your web server will have to handle. And, if logging is enabled, each of those requests will create a log entry for the 404 error. And, apparently, to prevent the errant request from IE11, you have to add a specialized header for each response from your web server, requiring additional bandwidth of your web server and users.

TamDenholm 12y ago

Forever ago i created http://allthefavicons.com/ http://allthefavicons.com/ in a similar vein. I've not touched it in years, but it still gets a few hundred uniques a month, strangely, mainly from Japan.

yarri 12y ago
Ummm... I think this just crashed under the HN load: Warning: mkdir(): No space left on device in /home/tam/Dropbox/Webserver/allthefavicons/htdocs/classes/allthefavicons.class.php on line 19 Warning: mkdir(): No such file or directory in /home/tam/Dropbox/Webserver/allthefavicons/htdocs/classes/allthefavicons.class.php on line 20

gioele 12y ago

Please note that there is a wrong suggestion in the site: > Why is favicon.ico not declared in the HTML code? > Looking for some sample favicon code, you've probably encountered: > <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="favicon.ico"> > Why is it not present in the code generated by RealFaviconGenerator? Because it somehow disrupts some other browsers like Chrome. And since IE looks for a file named favicon.ico anyway, the best solution is to not even talk about it. This is described by Jonathan T. Neal and Mathias Bynens. This is a bad advice, please continue using rel="shortcut icon" to indicate where the favicon is. W3C says so [1], the WHATWG agrees (or "permits")[2], and is needed on Android [3]. [1] http://www.w3.org/2005/10/howto-favicon http://www.w3.org/2005/10/howto-favicon [2] http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/links.html#rel-icon http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/... [3] http://www.mollerus.net/tom/blog/2010/06/web_app_homescreen_icons_in_android.html http://www.mollerus.net/tom/blog/2010/06/web_app_homescreen_...

maaaats 12y ago
They tell you insert 14 lines or so in your html anyway.
michaelmior 12y ago
Here's some references I found from Jonathan and Mathias. http://www.jonathantneal.com/blog/understand-the-favicon/ http://www.jonathantneal.com/blog/understand-the-favicon/ http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/rel-shortcut-icon http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/rel-shortcut-icon http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/touch-icons http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/touch-icons

mp4box 12y ago

Warning: XSS http://realfavicongenerator.net/favicon_checker?site=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28%22xss%22%29;%3C/script%3E http://realfavicongenerator.net/favicon_checker?site=%3Cscri...

ToastyMallows 12y ago
Didn't work for me, maybe it's fixed already?
- azdle 12y ago
  Worked for me in FF just now.
  - ttty 12y ago
    chrome doesn't work
    - ctz 12y ago
      Chrome's XSS auditor catches it: The XSS Auditor refused to execute a script in 'http://realfavicongenerator.net/favicon_checker?site=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28%22xss%22%29;%3C/script%3E' because its source code was found within the request. The auditor was enabled as the server sent neither an 'X-XSS-Protection' nor 'Content-Security-Policy' header.

psychometry 12y ago

I've found that image-to-favicon generators generally don't work very well. They're fine for generating the larger icons but the 16x16 ones generally look like crap. Those really require some tweaking on the pixel-level and require design skills not many people have, so I usually favor simpler favicons that can be manually created with a graphics editor.

gee_totes 12y ago

Thanks for building this! Before, I was using a hackey Perl script[0] and was thinking: "boy, I really hope someone builds a website to do this for me" [0]https://coderwall.com/p/ka3lia?i=2&p=1&q=author%3Ageetotes&t%5B%5D=geetotes https://coderwall.com/p/ka3lia?i=2&p=1&q=author%3Ageetotes&t...