Best way to change favicon without modifying core files?

2025-03-17 15:23:12

Hubzilla Support Forum

adminsforum@hubzilla.org

SK wrote the following post Mon, 17 Mar 2025 15:23:33 +0100

Best way to change favicon without modifying core files?

Is there a way to set the default favicon without editing core files? If not what is the best way to accomplish this?

show all 19 comments

2025-03-17 15:49:07

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@SK +1 for the hub
or just for a user account?

2025-03-17 15:50:27

sk@hub.utsukta.org

@*_jayrope hub, as admin

2025-03-17 16:59:56

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@SK Okay, same here, i am out of knowledge there, let's ask: @Mario Vavti

2025-03-17 17:08:13

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

At least with my hubs, I have noticed the following behaviour:

A favicon.ico or favicon.png in the Hubzilla directory is ignored. And the avatar picture of the hub admin is always displayed, even if you are not logged in.

2025-03-17 17:41:50

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

Looking at the source code of a channel, there is this snippet of code on pages related to a channel:

On pages that are not related to a channel, it inserts this code:

So somewhere in the Hubzilla core, it inserts this code. It might be in one of the template (*.tpl) files. If that is the case, then you can override it via the theme system. If not, then you'd probably have to create an addon, if there is a hook for it.

Unless there is some other way of changing the favicon.

2025-03-17 17:50:00

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@Scott M. Stolz Somehow i can't see your code example.

2025-03-17 17:58:26

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@*_jayrope That is odd. That might be the code that filters out certain HTML, but that should not apply to code blocks. I added some spaces to break the HTML. Hopefully that should show up now.

Looking at the source code of a channel, there is this snippet of code on pages related to a channel:

< link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://neuhub.org/photo/profile/m/10" />

On pages that are not related to a channel, it inserts this code:

< link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://hubzilla.monster/images/hz-32.png" />

2025-03-17 18:19:51

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@Scott M. Stolz i can confirm, that exchanging hz-32.png with my own design at least works, as long as i am logged in. Will investigate further. @SK

2025-03-17 18:34:49

Harald Eilertsen

harald@hub.volse.no

@SK You can call the App::head_set_icon($icon) static function, where $icon should be a valid url to a suitable image file.

2025-03-17 18:55:17

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@Harald Eilertsen How does one call this function exactly?

2025-03-17 19:05:36

sk@hub.utsukta.org

@*_jayrope i think we can have a icon entry box in admin settings which stores this as a key and is set as favicon in the themes config.php theme_admin_enable() function

2025-03-17 19:18:33

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@SK Might be not so "easy": Icons are usually stored (and in HZ as well) in a multitude of resolutions 16x16, 32c32 64x64 (and 612x512 for browser pages displaying a choice of sites at start up) etc.
- so in order to simply upload an image to the right folder in tehg admin backend we also need to make sure, that the server renders necessary image resolutions and file types (png, gif) automatically then.

2025-03-17 19:31:18

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

Not sure there is a way, but it probably should be...

2025-03-17 19:56:50

Harald Eilertsen

harald@hub.volse.no

@*_jayrope From your theme or addon:

 <?php
 //
 // Somewhere called during site initialization or request processing:
 //
 App::head_set_icon('/my-shortcut-icon-dir/me-with-sunglasses.png');

Where /my-shortcut-icon-dir is a valid path on your web serever, reachable by visitors. (E.g. a location directive in your nginx config or similar.)

2025-03-17 21:48:06

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@Harald Eilertsen Thank you! If I'd make this part of a theme, then again would this be erased upon the next HZ update?

2025-03-18 00:13:07

Harald Eilertsen

harald@hub.volse.no

@*_jayrope No, it's not a one-off thing. You need to call it for every relevant request. Alse there's no check if the icon is already set, so whoever calls the function last will get to decide the icon to use.

2025-03-18 00:17:44

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@Harald Eilertsen I get it. So, since i am the only person using my hub it'll be myself. Seems easy to memorize in my own case. I other cases it might mean funny results.

2025-03-18 09:28:37

Harald Eilertsen

harald@hub.volse.no

@*_jayrope Sorry, I was probably a bit unclear there. By "whoever" I don't mean channels on the hub, but "whoever's code" runs last.

As an example:

The Hubzilla boot code sets the shortcut icon early in the request cycle.
Then your theme sets the shortcut icon.
Then the module being visited (e.g /channel, /hq, /photos etc) sets the shortcut icon.

In this case the icon shows will be the one set by the module. (Which typically will be your avatar.)

2025-03-18 19:02:08

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

And it should be noted that different pages will have different favicons because of this behavior.