Allow for a Custom Screen Icon

[wpsmith]

It would be nice to be able to use screen_icon for custom icons. This could easily be done either through filters and/or allowing a custom icon to be passed.

[TobiasBg]

I don't think that this filter is actually necessary.
When you pass a string to screen_icon(), like

screen_icon( 'my-plugin' );

the resulting <div> will have the ID #icon-my-plugin. You'll just need to add something like

#icon-my-plugin {
	background: transparent url( 'plugin-icon.png' ) no-repeat;
}

to the CSS file that your (or most) plugins load on their admin screens anyway. I don't see the need for adding a filter to add extra inline CSS styling.

Suggesting wont-fix.

[nathanrice]

I think someone should try to defend the use of an empty div with CSS to display an image vs. using an actual image in the source. As far as I can tell, the way it's being done is wrong.

Seems to me, you should be able to pass an image URI to screen_icon() and have that output inside the div.

<div class="icon32"><img src="/path/to/image.png" alt="" /></div>

[nacin]

Replying to nathanrice:

I think someone should try to defend the use of an empty div with CSS to display an image vs. using an actual image in the source. As far as I can tell, the way it's being done is wrong.

These images are presentational/decorative by nature, and do not hold semantic value.

[nathanrice]

Replying to nacin:

These images are presentational/decorative by nature, and do not hold semantic value.

Shouldn't they then be the background image of the H2?

[nacin]

They could, but that's not how it was architected back in 2.7. No use changing it now. If I had to guess, there were some efforts required to ensure that markup was easily compatible with plugin pages created for 2.6 and earlier, but I don't have any particular insight.

[TobiasBg]

Nathan, don't forget that only the approach of a <div> with a background image gives you the possibility to use a CSS sprite for the image, which is a great benefit, and which is something core and some plugins do.

[nacin]

Replying to TobiasBg:

Nathan, don't forget that only the approach of a <div> with a background image gives you the possibility to use a CSS sprite for the image, which is a great benefit, and which is something core and some plugins do.

That's the reason I was looking for. Thanks.