Overview

Current Version 0.1
Copyright 2006 Cindy Moore
License GPL 2.0
Download Zip file
Md5 sum: 943e9bc1321fda1c6e98a4577fbb9c92

This is a small plugin that allows you to manage the favicon image for your WordPress installation. You can specify any arbitrary file, either locally within your installation, or at an arbitrary url. You can also optionally have the image included in either your RSS2 or your Atom feeds, or both. All options can be set from the new options menu in the administration panel. There is no editing of any files required.

Installation

1. Download the zipped file to your plugins directory and unpack. You should have a new directory containing the favicon manager files now.
2. Activate the plugin from the Plugins panel.
3. Set your favicon location and your feed options from the Options->Favicons menu of the Administration panel.

Features

This is a drop in plugin, there are no additional files to set because it’s all done through the administration panel under Options->Favicons.

Once you set your favicon location, it will display below the input field. This helps you determine quickly whether or not you entered your favicon location correctly without having to go refresh other browser windows or tabs to see if it worked.

Remarks

There is no inherent restriction on what sort of a file a favicon may be. You can find more information on favicons in general at the Wikipedia. I found the second icon generator listed on this page (near the end) the most useful because it was able to handle transparency. However, you don’t have to use icons: DR’s own favicon is actually a gif image.

This plugin will only work with WordPress 2.0 and above. The code used for the feeds does not exist in prior versions. I have no idea what would happen if you tried this plugin in such an installation.

As far as the elements added to the feeds go, RSS2 uses the <image> element to define an image, not necessarily a favicon. There is remarkably little documentation on this, but some notes here explain the element to some extent.

There’s even less documentation on Atom’s <icon> element — the basic specification doesn’t say much, other than that it contains an atomCommonAttributes which appears to be a fancy way of describing a url. So the Atom’s hook puts in the url of the favicon encapsulated in the icon element, which seems to work.

I’ve tested both these feed modifications with Bloglines, which has subsquently made use of the images in both the RSS2 and Atom subscriptions for their bookmarks on the left sidebar navigation tree, so I consider this a success in that venue. However, if there’s more information I’ve overlooked, I would very much appreciate a pointer sent my way.

Any feedback or commentary are appreciated. This is the first plugin I’ve done that goes in and modifies the administration panel and uses hooks and all of that (an anatomy of the plugin’s development is on this blog). Please let me know if you have any problems installing it, find bugs in it, or have suggestions!