Will an html image tag execute in the head tag

javascript html

13,819

Solution 1

It shouldn't. The spec says:

User agents do not generally render elements that appear in the HEAD as content.

See the spec

But browsers can do anything they want to.

Added:

It's a loose area in the spec. Eg a browser could:

Render the element
Ignore the element
Load the image from its server but not render it
Or something else

... and the browser would be compliant.

So see what your favorite browsers do and then use the info as you wish...

Solution 2

That would depend on the browser. The code is incorrect, and there is no standard for how to handle incorrect code, so it's up to each browser to try to make any sense of it.

I think that most browsers would change to a tag soup mode, and show whatever they can, but some browsers might ignore the image instead.

There is also the matter what the incorrect code does to the rest of the page. If the browser changes how the code is parsed, it may have negative effects on the code that is correct.

Solution 3

Yes. I tested in FireFox and Chrome and it was requested.

Solution 4

Yes, the browser will attempt to load the img resource, but for reasons that aren't immediately obvious.

Assuming this is served as text/html, when the browser's parser sees the <img> element it will believe that it is encountering displayable content and simply infer the </head> and <body> tags (remember, these are optional in HTML), so the <img> is not actually in the head element, but in the body element.

If you use firebug, or another means of inspecting the DOM such as http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/, you can see for yourself that this is the case.

Since the img is in body, the browser doesn't see it as different from any normal <img> element.

Solution 5

Instead of setting width=1 height=1 I would set style="display:none" to prevent it from rendering and affecting layout.

All browsers will request the image in the header even with display:none.

I have checked it on:

MS Edge: 13
IE: 8, 9, 10 and 11
Safari: 9 and 6
FF: 25, 47 and 49
Chromium: 51

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13,819

Matt Elhotiby

Interests: Javascript, React and Rails

Updated on April 30, 2022

Comments

Matt Elhotiby almost 2 years

So a lead tracking company needs a link to fire and it was in the head tag...will it fire.

<head>
    <img width=1 height=1 src='http://track.searchignite.com/si/CM/Tracking/TransactionTracking.aspx?siclientid=4426&DetailDescription=935626&transactionamount=1&SICustTransType=19172&jscript=0&x10=goog&x9=1&x8=935626&x7=777+665-9999&x6=jones&x5=matt&x4=&x3=Camarillo&x2=Oxnard%2C+CA+Metro+Area&x1=Hidden+Springs&n1=Austin--Bedroom--austin_1_bedroom_apartments-P'>
</head>