By Amisha Pardasani

Contents Introduction to Wireless Application Protocol Introduction to Wireless Markup Language WML Formatting Links and Images Input Tasks Timer Forms Variables Entities Template Conclusion References

What is WAP

WAP Architechture

Does wireless internet really need a different protocol? Issues: Transfer speed Size and Readability Navigation

Summarizing WAP WAP is an application communication protocol WAP is used to access services and information WAP is inherited from internet standards WAP is for handheld devices WAP is a protocol designed for micro browsers WAP enables the creating of web applications for mobile devices WAP uses the markup language WML

Examples of WAP Checking train table information Ticket purchase Flight check in Viewing traffic information Checking weather conditions Looking up stock values Looking up addresses, phone numbers

What is WML? Wireless Markup Language based on XML Purpose: to specify user interface behavior and display contents on wireless devices such as (phones), pagers, (PDAs) WAP, WML WWW, HTML

Is WML lean and mean? WML is designed to support a range of devices which have the following characteristics: Small display size (relative to conventional personal computers) Limited memory and CPU size Low bandwidth Due to these reasons WAP was designed to be lean and mean

WML Formatting WML tags Decks and cards Comments Text formatting Tables

WML Tags Syntax: strict, conforms to XML 1.0 standard Restricted use of tags Restricted use of tables and images Tags are case-sensitive

WML Decks and Cards Deck WML page Consists of a set of cards All cards in a deck are downloaded at one time Must be small and contain logically pertaining cards Cards Can contain text, markup, links, input- fields, tasks, images, etc. Can be related to each other with links

A Simple Example Hello World! Welcome to WAP School! Card Hello World! WML Code Only one card is displayed at a time Result

Comments Comments are not displayed in the browser

Text Formatting normal emphasized strong bold italic underline big small Formatting normal emphasized strong bold italic underline big small WML Code Result

Tables Cell 1 Cell 2 Cell Table Cell 1 Cell 2 Cell 3

WML Links and Images Links – tag Images

Links - Tag Next page

Links - Tag Some links: News Sports

Image This is an image in a paragraph Image This is an image in a paragraph

WML Input Input fields Format Masks Select and Option Fieldset

Input Fields Name: Age: Sex: Input Name: Age : Sex : Syntax: text

Specifying a Format Mask A: Any symbolic or uppercase alphabetic character (no numbers) a: Any symbolic or lowercase alphabetic character (no numbers) N: Any numeric character (no symbols or alphabetic characters) X: Any symbolic, numeric, or uppercase alphabetic character (not changeable to lowercase) x: Any symbolic, numeric, or lowercase alphabetic character (not changeable to uppercase) M: Any symbolic, numeric, or uppercase alphabetic character (changeable to lowercase)--for multiple character input, defaults to uppercase first character m: Any symbolic, numeric, or lowercase alphabetic character (changeable to uppercase)--for multiple character input, defaults to lowercase first character To limit the number of characters users can enter, you can specify a single digit number before the character tag--for example, format="3X" lets user enter a maximum of three symbolic, numeric, or uppercase alphabetic characters. To let users enter an unlimited number of characters, specify an asterisk (*) before the character tag--for example, format="*a" lets the user enter any number of symbolic or lowercase alphabetic characters.

Select and Option HTML School XML School WAP School --- Selectable List 1--- HTML School XML School WAP School

Select Syntax text <select title="label" multiple="boolean” name="variable” default="default" iname="index_var” ivalue="default” tabindex="n"> content

Option Syntax The element specifies a particular choice within a element. Syntax content

Fieldset Title: Prize: Fieldset CD Info Title: Prize:

WML Tasks Go task Prev task Refresh task Noop task

Task Elements

Go Task Go To Test The element is a task element that instructs the device to open a specified URL. If the URL specifies a particular card, the device displays that card. If the URL specifies a deck, the device displays the first card in that deck. Syntax: content where content represents the variables to set when opening the specified URL: content You can optionally specify one or more variables in a statement:

Prev Task Previous Page The element is a task element that instructs the device to remove the current URL from the history stack and open the previous URL. If no previous URL exists on the history stack, specifying has no effect. Syntax: content where content represents the variables to set when opening the previous URL: content You can optionally specify one or more variables in a statement:

Noop Task Syntax The element is a task element that instructs the device to do nothing, i.e. "no operation." This element is useful for overriding deck-level elements, called shadowing

Refresh Task Syntax content where content represents the variables to refresh: content You must specify at least one variable in a statement: The element is a task element that instructs the device to refresh the specified card variables. The device also refreshes the display if any of those variables are currently shown. Refresh this page

Timer The element provides a method for invoking a task automatically after some period of user inactivity. Any task or user action that activates the card starts the timer, and executing any task element stops it. You can only associate one task per timer, and you can only define one timer per card. Hello, Unwired World!... Syntax

Forms A form is basically a do/go function Search for:

Variables Variables are used to proliferate status information or user entries from one card to another or to the server. Variables consist of a letter or underscore character, followed by zero or more letters, numbers or underscore. WML variables are case sensitive. A WML variable can be specified in various ways: with a setvar command through an input element with a postfield command The major use of variables is for forms.

Specifying a Variable with the Setvar Command Syntax: When someone executes a task (like go, prev, and refresh), the setvar element can be used to set a variable with a specified value.

Specifying a Variable through an Input Element Variables can also be set through an input element (like input, select, option, etc.). The following example will create a variable named schoolname: HTML School XML School To use the variable we created in the example above: You selected: $(schoolname)

Character Entities The following are the only non-numeric entities supported by wml:

Template This element behaves like a function that is shared by all the cards of a deck. Syntax Task

Conclusion WML offers software developers an entirely new, exciting platform on which to deploy their applications. With this new platform, however, there comes a host of tradeoffs and challenges. A new wrinkle will be added to the design process as things like server round-trips, bandwidth, and display sizes become issues to contend with. There is no doubt that WAP opens the door to a new era in application development and deployment.

References devgate2.phone.com/htmldoc/32w/wmlref/

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