Welcome to the 34th issue of Pineapplesoft Link! In this issue, I discuss wireless Internet, more specifically WAP (Wireless Access Protocol). I also compare WAP with the Japanese i-node technology.

Applied XML Solutions was released last month and it features many useful solutions that you can apply immediately in your company. For example, learn how to syndicate a web site to various devices -- including WAP phones http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672320541/pineapplesoftonl.

Wireless Internet

I have been experimenting with various forms of mobile Internet for the last 4 or 5 years. My needs are simple: I often travel on business and I want to access my electronic mailbox on the road.

So far the laptop is the best option but I have been looking for a smaller and lighter replacement. As I said, my needs are simple.

Over the years, I have experimented with a PalmPilot, a Psion and various brands of laptops before settling up on a laptop and a mobile phone with a built-in modem.

In the last few months, I developed a few small WAP sites so I could get a feel for the technology. I also bought a WAP compatible phone and, for a few hours, I hoped it could replace the bulky laptop. In this issue, I'll report on my findings both as a WAP developer and as a user.

The WAP Concept

The concept behind WAP is enticing: the mobile phone comes with a tiny browser which lets you surf special, WAP-compatible, web sites. In theory it looks neat but, in practice, it is awfully limited.

The screen, the keyboard, the speed and lack of real multimedia support penalize WAP phones (roughly in that order). Although the screens are larger than on a regular mobile phone, they are very small when compared to PCs or even Palm. Also it is painful to write URLs (not to mention emails) with a phone keyboard.

Communication speed is limited to 9600bps. Of course, that's too slow for movies or sound and, indeed, the browsers offer only black and white images. No color, no animated images, no movies, no MP3, no Flash and no QuickTime either.

With these limitations in mind, it is clear that regular web sites would be unreadable on a WAP phone. The typical web page is too long, includes too many images and would be too slow to download. Sites must be rewritten to cope with phone's limitations. This is done through a special markup language called WML, the Wireless Markup Language.

In practice to make your site WAP-compatible you rewrite it to use the WML tags instead of the HTML ones. While WML has an HTML flavor, it is completely incompatible with HTML. Therefore you will need to retrain yourself for a new markup language. Also HTML editors (e.g. HoTMetaL or FrontPage) currently do not work for WAP.

The most immediate consequence is a scarcity of WAP sites. None of the sites which I visit regularly is compatible with WAP. In fact the only familiar site I have found is from my stock broker. Call me old-fashioned by why anybody would want to manage its investments in a train or in a cafe is beyond me.

Furthermore there are no hobbyist or small businesses WAP sites or personal WAP pages. Hobbyists and small businesses were a powerful force in the development of the web. There's a huge network of personal pages, none of which is very popular but which, together, constitute a critical mass of content.

Alas, so far, hobbyists were turned down by the need to learn a new markup language and the lack of tools. I think this was a mistake from the mobile phone industry which chose to concentrate on medium and large businesses -- in spite of the Internet experience! Note to software publishers: there's a market for tools to help hobbyists and small businesses publish a WAP pages.

Still, as it stands, WAP can be useful in a professional environment. I recently met a gentleman involved in a project to give WAP phones to the police. The goal is to let them tap into databases (e.g. stolen cars) from a phone. I'm not sure such an application can turn WAP into a commercial success but it's worth trying.

The Japanese Experience

Any discussion on wireless Internet I would not be complete without i-mode. i-mode is a different technology developed by DoCoMo, the Japanese carrier. i-mode phones are not compatible with WAP but they are more powerful.

i-mode is faster than WAP (WAP should reach the same speed next year or in 2002), it is based on a subset of HTML and it supports richer multimedia content: music and animations. The combination has proved so enticing that more than 10 million Japanese have adopted it.

The reliance on a subset of HTML, called cHTML, is a huge advantage. Developers don't need to learn a new markup language, they are immediately proficient. And thanks to rich multimedia options, sites offer games and other leisure products which ensures the adoption of i-mode by consumers.

Developing for WAP

So much for the user experience. How does WAP look to the developer? The only difficulty is to learn the new markup language. Fortunately WML is not so difficult that you can't learn the basics in a couple of hours.

The major difference between HTML and WML is that WML breaks the page in a so-called deck of cards. With HTML, each screen is a different HTML file. In WML, one file may contain several screens. This lets you break a large body of text in several chunks which are better suited to small screens.

I could not find any serious WML editor. So far, it seems a programmer's editor is your best bet.

To publish WML files, a regular web server suffices. There is no need to buy or learn new software for hosting. Furthermore if you currently host with a web provider, it should work too. The only trick is to define a new MIME type on the server which takes less than a minute.

An interesting side-effect is that since WAP works with regular servers, you can use server-side scripting to build a database-enabled WAP site: JSP, ASP, ColdFusion and CGI are all compatible with WAP. Although, again, you need to use WML markup instead of HTML in the scripts.

Practically

Practically, it is not easy to maintain two copies of a web site: one in HTML, the other in WML. If you maintain a large site and want to make it available to WAP phones, now is a good time to turn to XML and XSL. The idea is to author documents in XML and use two sets of style sheets, one set to publish in HTML, the other one to publish in WML.

Tools to help you to do so include Cocoon http://xml.apache.org and OpenMarket http://www.openmarket.com. A whole chapter of Applied XML Solutions is devoted to such a solution http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672320541/pineapplesoftonl

Self-Promotion Department

As I indicated in a previous issue of Pineapplesoft Link, the team now includes Pascale Dechamps. Pascale brings her expertise in project management to her customers. If you are interested in the new services, visit our homepage at http://www.psol.be.

Three new articles last month. Gamelan published a review of Hypersonic SQL, an open source Java database and of Simkin, an interesting mix of scripting and XML. The new Gamelan URLs are very long and it will probably wrap in your email client. You might need to manually cut and paste in your browser:
Click here for URL 1
Click here for URL 2

IBM has published an article on international payments. Unless I'm mistaken this is my first published article that is not related to a technical topic. Therefore I'm very curious to read your feedback: http://www-4.ibm.com/software/developer/library/su-global.html

Finally, XML by Example is still doing surprisingly well and the new book, Applied XML Solutions was released last month. Both books are available at your regular bookstore or online from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789722429/pineapplesoftonl
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672320541/pineapplesoftonl.

About Pineapplesoft Link

Pineapplesoft Link is a free email magazine. Each month, it discusses technologies, trends and facts of interest to web developers.

The information and design of this issue of Pineapplesoft Link are owned by Benoit Marchal and Pineapplesoft. Permission to copy or forward it is hereby granted provided it is prefaced with the words: "As appeared in Pineapplesoft Link - http://www.pineapplesoft.com."

Editor: Benoit Marchal
Publisher: Pineapplesoft www.psol.be

Acknowledgments: thanks to Sean McLoughlin MBA for helping me with this issue.

Back issues are available at http://www.psol.be/old/1/newsletter/.

Although the editor and the publisher have used reasonable endeavors to ensure accuracy of the contents, they assume no responsibility for any error or omission that may appear in the document.

Last update: Octobre 2000.
© 2000, Benoît Marchal. All rights reserved.
Design, XSL coding & photo: PineappleSoft OnLine.