Accelerator (Internet Explorer)

Accelerator
Developed by Microsoft
Latest release
0.8
Extended from XML
Open format? Yes, As part of Microsoft Open Specification Promise
Website OpenService Accelerators Developer Guide

Accelerators are a form of selection-based search which allow a user to invoke an online service from any other page using only the mouse introduced by Microsoft in Internet Explorer 8.[1] Actions such as selecting the text or other objects will give users access to the usable Accelerator services (such as blogging with the selected text, or viewing a map of a selected geographical location), which can then be invoked with the selected object. According to Microsoft, Accelerators eliminate the need to copy and paste content between web pages.[2] IE8 specifies an XML-based encoding which allows a web application or web service to be invoked as an Accelerator service. How the service will be invoked and for what categories of content it will show up are specified in the XML file.[3] Similarities have been drawn between Accelerators and the controversial smart tags feature experimented with in the IE 6 Beta but withdrawn after criticism (though later included in MS Office).[4]

History

The "activities" icon of IE8 Beta 1.

Microsoft introduced accelerators in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 as "activities". It later renamed this to "accelerators".

IE8

Accelerators are included in IE8 by default as a type of add-on.

Sample Accelerator

This is an example of how to describe a map Accelerator using the OpenService Format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<openServiceDescription xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/schemas/openservicedescription/1.0">
  <homepageUrl>http://www.example.com</homepageUrl>
  <display>
    <name>Map with Example.com</name>
    <icon>http://www.example.com/favicon.ico</icon>
  </display>
  <activity category="map">
    <activityAction context="selection">
      <preview action="http://www.example.com/geotager.html">
        <parameter name="b" value="{selection}"/>
        <parameter name="clean" value="true"/>
        <parameter name="w" value="320"/>
        <parameter name="h" value="240"/>
      </preview>
      <execute action="http://www.example.com/default.html">
        <parameter name="where1" value="{selection}" type="text"/>
      </execute>
    </activityAction>
  </activity>
</openServiceDescription>

Where are Accelerators stored?

Accelerator XML files are stored in the folder:

C:\Users\your-user-name\AppData\LocalLow\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Services\

Accelerator parameters are stored in the Windows registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\InternetSettings\Activities

See also

References

  1. ↑ "New and exciting features". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  2. ↑ Mary Jo Foley. "IE 8 to feature WebSlices, Activities". CNet Blogs. Retrieved 2007-03-05.
  3. ↑ "How do I make my site 'light up' with Internet Explorer 8?". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  4. ↑ Paul Thurrott. "Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 Review". Windows IT Pro. Archived from the original on 14 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-12.

External links

Development

Wikimedia Accelerators

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.