August 6, 2005

favicon.ico - 404 error when analyzing access log files

One of the first things I noticed when analyzing the access log files for my site was a 404 Error stating that there was "no referrer" for favicon.ico. To some extent this particular message is not really an error, it’s more like a warning – in fact, it’s actually a good thing if you are actually getting this error. Hopefully I can show you how to take this good thing and make it even better.

The reason I says it’s a good thing is that it’s an indication people are adding you to their favourites, however, if you don’t have a favourites icon file defined on your web server then this error message will appear. Simply uploading an icon with the name favicon.ico to the root of your web server will ensure that the error message disappears and that the icon you have defined appears in your visitors bookmarks whenever they add you to their favourites. Obviously the icon that you have uploaded will be one that conforms to the "brand" or image you would like to portray on your web site. Once you have put the favourites icon in place and a visitor has added you to their favourites, whenever they click on the drop down box which displays the historical list of sites accessed, your icon will also appear next to your web site address in this listing. Following the successful upload of your favourites icon you can now establish how many people have added you to their favourites by checking the list of files downloaded using your log file analysis software. Without the icon file in place you have to rely on counting the number of times you obtained error 404 for favicon.ico to establish the number of times you have been added to people’s favourites. 

Related Links: -

Update:

You should also add the following snippet of code to the header section of your HTML page:

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

The first line of this code relates to your favourites icon whilst the second line is for a shortcuts icon. i.e. if anyone creates a shortcut to your site and puts it on their desktop, it will use this icon. In my situation I’m using the same icon for both but you can actually use a different icon if you choose.

If any reader’s know of any other good sites which contain icon libraries or software which can help you in designing icons, please add your comments to this post.

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August 6, 2005

ExpressionEngine blog and discussion forum link created in new release

I installed the latest release of ExpressionEngine on this site along with the Discussion Forum module. I was pleased to see that when you create a blog entry you can also at the same point in time create a forum entry or link your blog post to an existing forum entry.

This is illustrated in the diagram below:

Creating or linking to a forum entry from an EE blog post

In the case where the forum topic already exists you will need to specify the Forum topic ID. How do you know the Forum Topic ID? Go to a specific forum posting and look at the URL. If you’re using the standard forum installation options it should look something like this http://www.richardbyrom.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/1/

To ensure your blog entry is linked to the forum post you will have to enter some code into your template as specified here in the documentation.

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August 5, 2005

Looking forward to Podcast Con UK

I’ll be attending the Podcast Con UK, the UK’s first podcasting convention. According to their site:

PodcastCon UK 2005 is the first conference in Europe dedicated to podcasting. The conference will include an exciting combination of presentations, practical sessions and debate on all aspects of podcasting as it moves into its second year.

The following speakers have confirmed their attendance: -

  • Chris Kimber; Head of Radio Interactive, BBC – podcasting from a public broadcaster’s perspective
  • James Cridland; Head of Strategic Development, Virgin Radio – podcasting from a commercial broadcaster’s perspective
  • Milverton Wallace; Managing Director, Quixa NetMedia – podcasting, blogging and social media
  • Richard Vobes; The Richard Vobes Radio Show – developing creative content for your podcast
  • Neville Hobson; For Immediate Release - podcasting as a tool for business communications
  • Chris Skinner, Simulacrum – a live version of Chris’s legendary Simulacrum podcast
  • Paul Nicholls, lawyer and podcaster (podcastpaul.com) – podcasting, legal issues, is speech really free? Defamation

You can sign up to attend on this wiki. Directions to the Berners Hotel where the conference is being held via Google Maps and Google Earth (link requires google earth to be installed – get it from earth.google.com).

I’ve also added the event to the events and venues database, a calendar tagging site which essentially allows you to add events and venues to a database and tag them. See what it looks like here.

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