Create your own custom Accelerator for Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 8 released with lots of new exciting features like Web Slices, InPrivate Borwsing, Smart Screen Filter and many more. But i am totally impressed with one of its new feature called Accelerators.

The new Accelerators in Internet Explorer 8 help you quickly perform your everyday browsing tasks without navigating to other websites to get things done. Simply highlight text from any webpage, and then click on the blue Accelerator icon that appears above your selection to obtain driving directions, translate and define words, email content to others, search with ease, and more. For example, with the “Map with Live Maps” Accelerator in Internet Explorer 8, you can get an in-place view of a map displayed directly on the page.

Have a look at the sidebar for WinSpark.net Accelerator. (All non PC who has never faced to IE8 – this Accelerator works only in Internet Explorer 8.)

You can also create your own Accelerator for your Blog/Website. Its very simple. follow these  two simple steps.

• Create your own Accelerator XML definition file exactly like the given image and replace with your own data like HomePageURL, Display name Icon and description etc.

The XML file just created is called the service description file and it contains specific description about the service provider and type of service it provides. Upload this XML file to your blog and paste the URL of the XML file in the space of Addservice() method parameter. (described in step 2).

The first 2 lines define the OpenServiceFormat using the xml file version and the namespace. The namespace merely defines all elements in this specification. These lines must be in there.

<homepageUrl> : Defines the home page of the service provider.If you want to create Accelerator for www.Example.com, this link must come in homepageUrl attribute.This domain name value must match the other URLs defined in this XML file, or you will get an error when Internet Explorer 8 attempts to install the accelerator.

<display>: Defines the text that is presented to the user when they attempt to install the accelerator. And it will also appear when user will use the accelerator (see the screenshot given below). A popup window appears on the browser that shows information about the type of Accelerator.

<name>: The child of display element & contains the name of the Accelerator.

<activity>: Describes the activities of this accelerator. The category attribute defines what the category of the accelerator such as Search, Map, Define. You can define your own category but there must be only one instance of this element.

<activityAction>: This section defines information that is specific to a context of the activity using a context attribute. The context attribute indicates on what the accelerator should act upon. It can be one of the following values:

• Selection (default) – The text selected by the user.
• Document – The entire document.
• Link – The URL, if selected by the user.

<preview>:You can preview the information without opening the site. Internet Explorer 8 will open a box where you can preview the information without actually opening the web page. The preview element defines the action for preview.

<parameter>: The <parameter> element defines the name and values you want to pass to the URL when executing a preview or execute. The {selection} is like a variable. It will be replaced by the user selected value when invoking the web service. The Type defines the parameter data type.

<execute>: This element defines the action to take upon executing the accelerator. Typically this opens a new instance of the browser and displays the results using the posted data.

Your first step is over, Now its time to step ahead.

• Host the Accelerator XML file though an install button, Add the following code to your Homepage. (you can add this code as a widget).

The window.external.AddService() is one of the new extensibility API in IE 8. Get more info about this method here. Replace the method URL to your XML file url.

Over. Its simple and quite interesting. Hope you will have fun creating your own accelerators and improve your browsing experience. Add WinSpark.net Accelerator to your IE8.

Add WinSpark.net Accelerator