{"id":40,"date":"2008-06-23T00:25:04","date_gmt":"2008-06-23T05:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/?p=40"},"modified":"2010-06-21T10:11:14","modified_gmt":"2010-06-21T15:11:14","slug":"internet-explorer-8-webslices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/2008\/internet-explorer-8-webslices\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet Explorer 8 WebSlices"},"content":{"rendered":"

What are WebSlices?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a nutshell, webslices are an IE8 specific feature that allows the web designer to tag part of a webpage as a ‘webslice’. By tagging sections of a web page, users of IE8 can then subscribe to it, much in the same way that they can subscribe to an RSS feed. <\/p>\n

… I should also mention that when the webslice is updated, the user\/subscriber of the webslice will be notified. This is Microsoft’s explanation of it:<\/p>\n

WebSlices is a new feature for websites that enables users to subscribe to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds in that users can subscribe to them and receive update notifications when the content changes. Websites are polled at user-defined intervals, similar to the way RSS feeds are polled. Website operators may also define a minimum wait time between polls to minimize requests.<\/p>\n

Developers can mark parts of webpages as “WebSlices” and enable users to monitor information they rely on as they move about the web. With a click in the Favorites bar, users see rich “WebSlice” visuals and developers establish a valuable, persistent end-user connection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, sounds like RSS feeds to me … but I figure I’d give it go. So on the IE8 beta webslices<\/a> page, they give you a few links to websites that support webslices. Of course, the MSN page doesn’t seem to work – all I can find is the RSS feed. <\/p>\n

Thankfully the stumbleupon.com webslice link seems to work and so I subscribe to the webslice … <\/p>\n

Webslice subscribe window:<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Whenever you come across a web page with a webslice in it, you get this nifty little icon appearing in the IE8 toolbar.<\/p>\n

The webslice ‘alert’ icon:<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now that we’ve subscribed to the stumbleupon.com webslice, a corresponding button appears in our Favorites bar that when clicked, displays this snapshot of the content that is there now.<\/p>\n

Webslice current view:<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As the image above shows, it does offer something a little extra over an RSS feed … one less click, I suppose.<\/p>\n

Creating your own webslices in your web pages<\/h4>\n

It seems pretty simple; you just have to wrap whatever content that you want to become a webslice in a div tag, and then just tag the div with the class of ‘hslice’. <\/p>\n

There are a few sub elements that you can use to further define the webslice: ‘entry-title’ and ‘entry-content’ … among others. <\/p>\n

Here is a simple example:<\/h4>\n
\n
\r\n      
Item - $66.00<\/p> \r\n      
high bidder: buyer1 \u2026 <\/div> \r\n<\/div><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
Webslices can be decorated with a few other bits of information:<\/p>\n