Programming Applications with the Wireless Application Protocol: The Complete Developer's Guide - Hardcover

Mann, Steve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471327549 ISBN 13: 9780471327547

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1999

Synopsis

The authoritative programming guide to the WAP standard from the creators of this breakthrough technology

The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is the key force turning mass market wireless phones into Internet companions. These lightweight, inexpensive smart phones are well equipped for high-quality voice communication, modest-bandwidth (9-14 Kbps) data communication, seamless Internet connectivity, and access to Internet services via built-in WAP microbrowsers. Written with the creators of WAP, this book/CD-ROM package will guide you through the process of creating software for WAP-enabled cell phones and handheld devices.

Steve Mann presents practical tools, code snippets, and complete applications that will help you best utilize WAP. He introduces you to the Wireless Markup Language (WML) that you'll be able to use to create WAP applications. And you'll learn about the key features of WMLScript, including the lightweight procedural capabilities and function libraries it adds to WML. Mann also:
* Takes you step by step through the process of creating a real-world
WAP application
* Describes techniques for optimizing WAP applications
* Shows how to create more sophisticated and interesting applications using graphics
* Discusses the issues you'll need
* in order to build WAP applications that will work around the world
* Explains some of the advanced extensions to WAP
* Suggests future directions in which WAP may evolve

The CD-ROM includes:
* All the source code from the book
* A searchable version of the
* unabridged WAP standard
* The latest release of Phone.com's WAP Software Developer's Kit, containing the tools and documentation required to build real-world WAP applications

Phone.com is a leading provider of WAP software and SDKs to developers, wireless carriers, and phone manufacturers. Phone.com cofounded the WAP Forum in 1997 and chaired the WAP Forum's first Board of Directors. Phone.com's software architects, who contributed to this book, chair WAP's technical specification committees. For more information about Phone.com and the Wireless Application Protocol, please visit www.phone.com

For more information about the Wireless Application Standard,please refer to the Official Wireless Application Protocol: The Complete Standard with Searchable CD-ROM published by John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-32755-7 at www.wiley.com/compbooks/WAP

About this title

Review

The WAP just left the gate, but it's already delivering great Internet content to users of mobile phones and other wireless devices. Programming Applications with the Wireless Application Protocol is the first book to explain how to develop WAP-aware programs, and it does a super job with both the client and server sides of the transaction.

Because the applications developers reading this book largely won't know much about WAP's particulars, author Steve Mann opens with an intelligent explanation of how WAP integrates HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) with the wireless network. He then documents all wireless markup language (WML) elements and shows how to bring WML cards and decks to life with WMLScript. He documents the scripting language's syntax fully, and steps through the construction of a simple WML/WMLScript game that teaches some lessons.

Programmers itching to get to work on the server side will appreciate Mann's dissection of WorldFAQ, a content server that responds to client-side queries from WAP devices. Implemented as a Java servlet, WorldFAQ looks up requested values in a comma-delimited text file. The author assumes you know a fair amount about Java and its servlet classes, but he's careful to explain the lookup logic and a lot of the HTTP details. Sections on caching, graphics, and internationalization also use Java in examples. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), versions 1.0 and 1.1, and its cast of supporting technologies, especially Wireless Markup Language (WML) and WMLScript. There's material on the inner workings of a WML content server, graphics, and internationalization techniques.

About the Author

STEVE MANN is President of Creative Digital Publishing Inc., www.cdpubs.com, a leading provider of technical information for the handheld and mobile computing industries. He has 25 years of experience in the computer industry and is a frequent contributor to many wireless publications.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0471327549
• ISBN 13: 9780471327547
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256