WAP for Webmasters

What is WAP?
The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)is a standard technology that enables Cellular Phones to connect to the Internet and view stripped down Web Pages and Services.
WAP uses similar concepts to the desktop Internet we are all familiar with.The Cellular Phone has embedded WAP Micro-Browser software capable of displaying WML (Wireless Markup Language). The user enters the URL of a WAPSite into the Micro-Browser and thisrequest is forwarded to a WAP Gateway.The WAP Gateway resides within the Cellular Carriers network providing an interface between the Phone and the Internet. The WAP Gateway retrieves WML content from conventional web servers on the Internet and returns it to the Phone to be displayed by the Micro-Browser.
Why do we need WAP?
Is another markup language really needed? In a word - Yes! The constraintsof mobile devices and networks such as low bandwidth, high latency, low memory, and small display capabilities mean conventional Internet protocols (HTTP/TCP/IP) are unsuitable for use in the wireless environment. It is not feasible to automatically translate HTML designed for a high-resolution monitor onto a three or four line CellularPhone display. WAP is a standardised way to provide efficient and reliable access to Internet based information andservices via Cellular Phones.
How to WAP enable your existing website
If you already know HTML you will find learning WML very easy. There are less tags and most follow the conventions of HTML. The main differences between developing for the Web and Wap are the small screen size, monochrome images only, and slow connection considerations. Well-designed WAP applications provide a simplified web-like experience.
WAP is about providing access to relevant information from any location -news, email, sports results and banking have all been successfully translated to WAP. End-to-end security is provided by WAP so applications such as Banking andMobile Commerce are as safe as conventional E-Commerce sites.====================
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can beIntelligence
added to your WAP
applications by using
WMLScript, which
issimilar to JavaScript.
Anyone
can write WML
content and upload it to
a web server in the
same way as publishing
HTML pages. Server side
scripting such as Perl,
PHP, ASP, andJava
Servlets can all be used
to output dynamically
created WML content. In
many cases the hard
work of creating the
backend of the website
has already been done
and the WAP conversion
is
a relatively quick and
painless process.
The
constraints of the
WAP environmentand
tight syntax of WML are
actually a blessing in
disguise. Developers
have much less scope to
format the layout of
content compared to
HTML design and thus
deployment time is
dramatically reduced.
Why choose WAP?
By
choosing WAP you
are building applications
and services that are
accessible across all
WAP enabled Phones
and Cellular networks
(GSM, CDMA, TDMA and
3G in the future). You
will reach a much wider
audience as the number
of Cellular phone users
now exceeds that of
Desktop PC users.
WAP
is an evolving
technology that is
capable of maturing as
the wireless
dataindustry evolves
and is an extremely
powerful tool to extend
your website's reach
beyond the
conventional Desktop
PC.

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