14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is already offering extensive documentation for developers to start integrating Web Slices into their websites via MSDN, but the company has gone one step further. Devs interested in tailoring their websites for Internet Explorer 8 can now grab Web Slice tutorials from the Microsoft Download Center. The software giant is offering the source code accompanying the Web Slice Tutorial topics on MSDN.
“In these short lessons, you will learn how to add Web Slices to an existing Web page. You start with a Web page that contains a fictitious conference schedule, a weather report, and ticket auction for a hit Broadway musical. Initially, the page contains one simple Web Slice, but you will gradually implement additional functionality,” Microsoft noted.
Web Slices are one of the new browser features introduced by Microsoft with the advent of Internet Explorer 8. Designed to allow end users to subscribe to a specific area on a webpage and receive updates with every refresh suffered by the content, Web Slices need more than Internet Explorer 8 in order to gain traction with end users. In this regard, developers have to introduce Web Slices into their websites in order for IE8 users to subscribe to via the browser.
“A Web Slice uses simple HTML markup to represent a clipping of a Web page, enabling users to subscribe to content directly within a Web page,” Microsoft explained. On MSDN the company is offering no less than six tutorials set up to make it easy for web developers to embrace the feature with their websites.
Following the lessons offered, devs will be able to leverage Web Slices in multiple scenarios including Adding Web Slices to a Web page; Adding visible content to your Web Slice; Setting an expiration time; Setting a time-to-live (TTL) value; Getting Web Slice content from an RSS feed source; [and] Using a custom button to install a Web Slice.”
Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW is available for download here (for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008).