Programming the Wireless Web
http://csc.ColumbusState.edu/summers/Research/wireless/Programming-Wireless-Web.html
Abstract - "The growth of wireless connectivity is faster even than the growth of the Internet" [1].
"Several industry analysts have predicted that by the end of 2002, the number of mobile phone users worldwide will top one billion and that by the end of 2003, more people will connect to the Internet via a mobile device than via a PC." [2]
Designing and developing wireless websites presents some unique challenges when compared with the World Wide Web. The wireless web has its own set of protocols for transmitting information and languages for developing and presenting content on the wireless web. The protocol standard for mobile Internet applications is the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). Among the languages for developing wireless websites are Wireless Markup Language (WML), XHTML Basic, and Wireless Cascading Style Sheets (WCSS), and WMLScript.
This presentation provides an overview of the wireless web and the languages for developing wireless websites.
- What is the Wireless Web?
- Convergence of the web and wireless technology including mobile phones and handheld devices
- Wireless data market is expected to grow from about 170 million users worldwide in 2000 to more than 1.3 billion by 2004. ["Wireless Data Users to Reach 1.3 Billion by 2004," Wireless Developers Network web site at http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/news/2000/235/news3.html]
- Wireless Advantages
- Mobility - ability to access Internet from nearly anywhere
- Localization - ability to locate wireless devices using GPS or other methods
- Personalization - tailor content based on individual preferences
- Immediacy and Push - deliver information to users when they need it rather than when it is requested
- Wireless Constraints
- Small screens
- Low bandwidth
- Diverse standards
- Technologies
- WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
- WML: XML-compliant language for delivery of content to WAP-enabled phones and PDAs
- XHTML: XML-compliant version of HTML (part of WAP 2.0 standard); XHMTL Basic
- Wireless Cascading Style Sheets (WCSS)
- WMLScript (based on ECMAScript)
- SyncML - high-level protocol for synchronizing data across portable devices (independent of WAP, HTTP, and IR transport)
- Exchange personal data (vCard, vCalendar, to-do lists, …)
- E-mail and network news
- XML and HTML documents
- Binary data (BLOBs)
- VoiceXML - text-based language for creating automated voice services
- Java and Wireless
- "Is your car your one safe haven from the Internet? Enjoy it while it lasts.", John Frederick Moore, technology writer
- Resources
- Alex Kanakaris, chief executive, Kanakaris Wireless
- NOKIA White Paper, 2000.
- Wireless Web A Manager's Guide by Frank P. Coyle, Addison-Wesley, 2001; ISBN - 0-201-72217-8
- Wap Forum
- Openwave Systems
- Wireless.com
- WAP School
- Wireless in a Nutshell