Icons Section

Overview

The Icons Section properties control the use of customizable icons in Second Site.

Icons are controlled via a flag field and a context. Second Site uses the value of a flag to determine which icon to show for a particular person. Icons can be shown in these contexts:

Next to the subject's name on the person page.

Next to a name in the index.

Next to a child's name in the children section of a person page entry

Use controls in the Icon Flags frame to manage icons.

Icon Files

You may use graphic files with the extension GIF, JPG/JPEG, or PNG. The graphic files must be in the Input (-i) folder. Second Site will manage icon files for you via the Set Flag Icon window. Second Site copies icon files to the Output (-o) folder when it makes the site.

Second Site assigns names to icon files by concatenating the name of the flag field with the value in the field for a particular person. Second Site lowercases the flag label and also removes any blanks. If you choose the LIVING flag, a person entry will include one of the following images:

If you do not assign an icon file for a particular flag value, Second Site will not add an icon for people with that value. For example, if you want an icon only for people who are alive, do not put a livingn.gif file in the Input (-i) folder.

Second Site does not resize the icon image so choose icons that are a reasonable size. What is reasonable? Well, that's up to you, but I suggest images no more than 24 pixels high and 32 pixels wide. 16 by 16 is better.

See the Set Flag Icon window for a description of the properties for a specific flag.

See the Icon Library page for icons you can use on your site.

Notes

Note Many TMG flag fields include the value "?" to mean unknown or unset. A question mark is not a valid file name character on many systems, so Second Site converts the "?" to "qm".

As a result, the Living flag example above should be expanded as follows:

If there are hundreds of images on a page, as might happen if an icon is assigned to everyone on an index page, Microsoft Internet Explorer will sometimes fail to display the image. I am trying to determine if there is a workaround for this problem.

Second Site supports the Shortcut Icon/Favorite Icon (favicon) feature; see the Shortcut Icon page.