Create custom activities for IE 8

Mar 5, 2008

A few hours ago, IE 8 beta 1 was released for download. The first impression is really good although it renders a bit differently which probably is a good thing due to standard compliance. One of the new features is called Activities and is a way for web developers to create content that lives outside their own website.

I’ve just written an Activity that let IE 8 users right click on any web page and select Blog with BlogEngine.NET. IE 8 then takes you to the Add entry page of your blog and inserts the title and link from the page into the editor. This is done only by using XML and JavaScript. You can see the XML file here.

You too can add a Blog with BlogEngine.NET to your IE 8 by using this little form. Just type in your website URL and push the button. Remember that you need to have IE 8 beta 1 installed for it to work.

You’ll find more information about writing Activities in this PDF document. Other information about IE 8 can be found at the IE 8 welcome page.

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Comments (6) -

Nigel

3/5/2008 10:52:28 PM #

Also giving IE8 a run - appreciate your advice on custom activities. Have noticed that some blogengine sites are affected especially the header section. What can we do to fix this.

Mads Kristensen

3/6/2008 6:04:39 AM #

I don't want to do anything about it just yet. It is clear that the rendering engine in beta 1 is still far from finished. I'll wait for the next beta or CTP before looking into it.

Philipp Kueng

3/8/2008 4:00:31 PM #

Thanks you for your short example of IE8 activities.
I tried it myself, but ran into a error. After adding the 'select' activityAction it worked for me.

<activityAction context="selection">
<execute method="get" action="<same url as in the other activityAction nodes>">
<parameter name="title" value="{documentTitle}" />
<parameter name="SourceURL" value="{documentUrl}" />
<parameter name="description" value="{selection}" type="html" />
</execute>
</activityAction>

Did someone else make the same experiences? Or could this already be a bug?

Kuweekee

3/10/2008 5:22:30 PM #

Hello everyone,

i just read about the activities in IE8, and i was immediately intrigued, especially by the Send with windows live mail. I am running my own internet mail, and i was wondering if anyone here knows how to make adjustments to the windows live one, so that it links to a different page, and if that information is common knowledge, or if microsoft keeps that for themselves. If anyone can shine light on this matter, it would be much appreciated.

Philipp Kueng

3/10/2008 7:44:53 PM #

If you have your own internet mail running, you can just take the live mail example from MS at ie.microsoft.com/.../hotmail-activity.xml at modifiy the urls. Then you need to change your internet mail application to read out the information in the querystring. And here you go.