| Web Slice | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developed by | Microsoft |
| Latest release | 0.9 |
| Type of format | Web syndication,Screen scraping |
| Extended from | hAtom Microformat |
| Open format? | Yes, As part ofMicrosoft Open Specification Promise |
| Website | Web Slice Format Specification - Version 0.9 |
Web Slices are aweb feed technology based on thehAtom Microformat[1] that allows users to subscribe to portions of a web page.[2][3][4][5]Microsoft developed the Web Slice format, and published a specification under theirOpen Specification Promise.[1] The specification is not published by any independent standards body. Introduced inInternet Explorer 8 Beta 1, Web Slices can be previewed in a fly-out window.[6] As of 2012,[update] Internet Explorer 8 and 9 were the only browsers to support Web Slices natively, althoughMozilla Firefox had support via anadd-on called webchunks.[7]
A Web Slice has 9 properties: the Web Slice id, entry title, entry content, end time, alternative display source, alternative navigation, alternative update source, and time to live.[1]The 3 required properties are: the Web Slice id, entry title, and entry content.
To disable Web Slices on a web page, add:[8]
<metaname="slice"scheme="IE"content="off"/>
To specify the default web slice on a page with multiple web slices, add:[8]
<linkrel="default-slice"<!--Mustbe"default-slice"--> type="application/x-hatom"<!-- Must be "application/x-hatom" --> href="id of webslice"<!-- The ID of the web slice -->/>
<divclass="hslice"id="hslice-id goes here"><!-- The ID of the hSlice --><divstyle="display:none"class=<"entry-title">Title goes here</div><--Thetitle--><spanclass="ttl"style="display:none">360</span><!-- How often to refresh in minutes --><abbrclass="endtime"title="10 Jan 2020 00:00:00 UTC"></abbr><!-- When the link expires --><divclass="entry-content"> The content goes here</div>
While Firefox does not have built in support for web slices, extensions have been created to give the ability to read web slices.
WebChunks is aMozilla Firefox 3 implementation ofMicrosoft Webslices. It allows you to "follow" an area of a web page through a dedicated feed bookmarked in a new toolbar. WithGreasemonkey, WebChunks can insert webchunks or webslices markup into any web page so the Webchunks extension handles it.[7][9][10][11][12][13]
Fireclip is a Firefox addon that lets you "clip out" parts of a website and watch them for changes. It lets you track specific parts of a website in a similar manner to web slices.[14][15][16][17][18][19]
Pageslices was another Firefox addon that allowed not only storing parts of websites but also organizing them by adding on custom pages.[20]
Google Chrome, like Firefox, does not have built in support for web slices. However, theextension API new to Chrome 4 allows extensions to be created to give the ability to relatively simply create arbitrary webslices[21] of any content from any page.
Although it was rumored thatOpera 10 would have support for web slices, this did not come to pass.[22][23] Opera does have a "widgetize" feature likened to web slices which allows web pages to be displayed on a user's desktop.[24]
