WML (Wireless Markup Language)

Abstract

Wireless application protocol (WAP) (Open Mobile Alliance, 2003) is a suite of network protocols that specifies ways of sending data across the airwaves. A wireless device is said to be WAP-compatible if, and only if, it has software that is fully capable of handling all WML 1.1 DTD entities. WML (Wireless Markup Language) (Open Mobile Alliance, 2001) is the XML-based language that is used in conjunction with WAP to format documents. As with all such protocol suites, WAP is organized hierarchically. At the bottom there are low-level protocols that are used for basic operations such as establishing connections, coding alphanumeric characters, and so on. At the top are the high-level protocols such as WML, which passes on page information. For more information on other WAP protocols, please visit http://www.wapforum.org/. WML script writing and applications will be discussed in Chapters VI through IX: • Chapter VI: The current chapter introduces fundamental WML components such as tables and images. • Chapter VII: Advanced WML, especially dynamic WML pages using CGI (Common Gateway Interface), will be introduced. • Chapter VIII: WMLScript, a lightweight JavaScript language used in conjunction with WML, is explained. • Chapter IX: The construction of a database-driven mobile web site using WML is explained step-by-step.