Internet Explorer 8 Resources
IE8 Resources
- CA.gov Case Study - Microsoft - Posted: 02/24/2009
- IE8 Downloads - Microsoft
- IE8 Overview for Webmasters and Developers (PDF) - October 7, 2008
- Recording of LiveMeeting (ZIP) - Overview for Webmasters and Developers (October 7, 2008)
- Videos
- VPC Hard Disk Image - Microsoft
For testing websites with different IE versions on Windows XP SP2, Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista
IE8 Features
Web Slices
Using Web Slices, you can keep up with frequently updated sites directly from the Favorites Bar. If a Web Slice is available on a page, a green Web Slices icon will appear in the upper-right hand corner of the browser. You can then subscribe and add them to the Favorites Bar or delete Web Slices that are no longer desired.
- About Web Slices - Microsoft
- Web Slices Overview - Microsoft
- Web Slices Overview (video) - Microsoft
- Creating Web Slices (video) - Microsoft
CA.gov's Web Slice
The CA.gov site implemented Web Slice feature on the home page for the "News" section. This allows you to keep tab on the news from your favorites bar. Here is how it works:
If a Web Slice is available on a page, a green Web Slices icon will appear in the upper-right hand corner of the browser.
Hover your mouse over an item on a web page. If that item incorporates Web Slice functionality, the Web Slice icon will appear. Click on the icon to add this "slice" of the web to your Favorites Bar.
Click "Add" to subscribe to the Web Slice content.
When you click on the Web Slice in the Favorites Bar, it previews relevant information. Clicking on the preview takes you directly to the site for more information. When new information becomes available, the Web Slice will become highlighted.
In order to create a Web Slice, you must add three attributes to your Web site:
- class="hslice" - This class declares the Web Slice. The tag must have an id value which is unique on that page.
- class="entry-title" - This class defines the name of the Web Slice. This is the title that the Web Slice will have on the Favorites bar.
- class="entry-content" - This class defines the content within the Web Slice.
Accelerators
Accelerators are IE 8 browser context menu options that can quickly access other applications or other pages within the same application from any web page. You can install existing accelerators from websites which advertise them or define and install your own. Below explains how to install an accelerator using both methods.
Right click anywhere on a web page in your IE 8 browser and select:
- More Accelerators
- Find More Accelerators from the displayed menu.
This will lead you to an advertiser web page with various accelerators and a link to additional accelerators. Locate the accelerator of your choice and select its Install Accelerator link. The Add Accelerator Provider dialog box appears; click on the Add Provider button.
Confirm your successful install by clicking the OK button.
Define and install your own Accelerator
Create a .xml file and add to a xml folder at the site’s root level, for example "htdocs/".
Listed below is a sample of the .xml file created for an accelerator that calls the Department of Technology Services (DTS) Event Calendar. The highlighted text denotes the values you need to modify for your accelerator. An explanation of these tags may be viewed at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc289767(VS.85).aspx.You may also download this source code.
Once you have created and saved your .xml file to an accessible location, you need to give your site users a way to install the accelerator on their machine. You can add the following code to any HTML tag that has an onclick event (e.g. img, anchor, button, etc.).
- onclick="Window.external.AddService(URL)"
URL is the location where you placed your custom .xml file.
See below for an example of the code attached to an img tag. You may also download this source code.
To add this custom accelerator, left click on the image. The Add Accelerator Provider dialog box will be displayed for you to confirm the action. To confirm, click the Add Provider button.
A confirmation dialog box will appear. Click the OK button to complete the accelerator addition.
To verify that your new accelerator exists; highlight any piece of text on your page. You should see the Accelerator logo near the highlighted text. Click on More Accelerators and the custom accelerator that was recently added, "Check DTS Calendar", should be listed.
To use the accelerator, highlight some text and click the blue accelerator icon. In this example using the DTS Calendar accelerator, highlight a date, click the blue icon for more accelerators.
Select "Check DTS Calendar."
The accelerator returns a search of the date in the DTS Event Calendar.
Additional Resources
Examples
- California State Portal - CA.gov
- eBay - eBay
- Internet Explorer Gallery - Microsoft
View examples of web slices and accelerators.