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NET Mobile Introduction

Background
Cell phones (mobile phones) have become part of our life style.

Today, mobile devices can connect to the Internet, and execute web applications.

Mobile applications can now be developed to deliver any types of data, to any user, any place in the world!

Different mobile devices support different programming languages. Some support WAP and WML, some
support HTML or a limited version of HTML, and some support both or a different language.

To support all types of mobile devices, developers must create one different application for each language.

With .NET Mobile, Microsoft has introduced a new platform for developing mobile applications.

This tutorial is about how to develop applications with an extension to the .NET Framework, called the
Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit (MMIT) or simply .NET Mobile.

What You Should Already Know

Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:

• HTML / XHTML
• XML namespaces
• ASP .NET

If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page.

.NET Mobile
.NET Mobile is an extension to Microsoft ASP.NET and the Microsoft's .NET Framework.

.NET Mobile is a set of server-side Forms Controls to build applications for wireless mobile devices.

These controls produce different output for different devices by generating WML, HTML, or compact HTML.

How Does It Work?

The following table shows how the .NET Mobile works:

Mobile Devices
The Internet
Internet Information Services - IIS
The .NET Framework
ASP.NET
.NET Mobile

• A web client requests a web page

• The request travels the Internet
• The request is received by IIS
 • The request is handled by the .NET framework
• The requested page is compiled by ASP.NET
• .NET Mobile handles any mobile device requirements
• The page is returned to the client

Software Requirements
To develop mobile applications with .NET Mobile, you must have the following components:

1. Windows 2000 Professional/Server with IIS 5

2. All Windows 2000 service packs
3. The ASP.NET framework
4. Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit (MMIT)
5. Internet Explorer 5.5 or later
6. A WAP simulator

You will need Windows 2000 to develop .NET applications (IIS 5 (Internet Information Services) is a part of
Windows 2000).

If you want to read more about how to install .NET go to our ASP.NET tutorial.

You also have to install MMIT (.NET Mobile).

Internet Explorer and MMIT can be downloaded from Microsoft MSDN.

How To Start
Developing a mobile web application with ASP.NET is very easy:

1. Create an ASP.NET page

2. Include System.Mobile.UI
3. Add Mobile Controls to the page

Introduction:

This article presents a general idea of the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and
developing mobile Web application with .NET. Let me first explain the basic principles of
WAP and a sample WML code and the same code in the .NET Mobile Web SDK.

History of WAP:

WAP is a global standard and is not controlled by any single company. Ericsson, Nokia,
Motorola, and Unwired Planet founded the WAP Forum in the summer of 1997 with the
initial purpose of essential an industry-wide specification for developing applications over
wireless communications networks.

At first Phone.com, Ericsson, Nokia and many others began developing standards
separately of each other, but soon they understand that it would make more sense to
focus improvement around a common standard. They all wanted to establish a common
layout for Internet transfers to mobile telephones, without having to modify the Internet
pages for the particular display on every different mobile telephone or personal
organizer. With WAP Forum they were able to find such a protocol.

What is WAP?

The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an open, global specification that empowers
mobile users with wireless devices to easily access and interact with information and
services right away.

The WAP is a specification for a set of communication protocols to standardize the way
that wireless devices, such as cellular telephones and radio transceivers, can be used for
Internet access, including e-mail, the World Wide Web, and newsgroups.

What is WAP Forum?

The WAP Forum is the industry association comprising over 500 members that has
developed the in effect world standard for wireless information and telephony services
on digital mobile phones and other wireless terminals.

The primary goal of the WAP Forum is to bring together companies from all segments of
the wireless industry value chain to ensure product interoperability and enlargement of
wireless market.

The WAP architecture.

To access a Web site on a mobile phone, we have to type the URL in the browser. Using
Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS), the mobile phone browser generates an
encrypted URL request and sends it over Wireless Session Protocol (WSP) to a WAP
gateway server. WSP is a variant of HTTP that transfers information in binary format,
rather than text-based format.

The WAP gateway server interprets the request, translates it into a conventional HTTP
request, and sends it to the Web server.

After getting the request, the Web server interprets it and determines which resources to
retrieve or execute. If the URL indicates a file, the server sends the file to the client. If
the URL indicates an ASP page, then the Web server executes the ASP code before
sending the results to the WAP gateway server. In this method the returned content
must be in the form of a WML document.

The gateway server removes the unnecessary headers, translates the WML document
into binary, and sends the response to the mobile phone browser. The browser interprets
the WML and displays it to the user. This is the architecture behind the WAP.

WML (WIRELESS MARKUP LANGUAGE)

WML (Wireless Markup Language), previously called HDML (Handheld Devices Markup
Language), is a language that allows the text portions of Web pages to be presented on
cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) via wireless access. WML is part of
the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) that is being proposed by several vendors to
standards bodies. Any programmer with working knowledge of HTML, CGI scripts, and
SQL queries should be able to write a presentation layer using WML. A filter program can
be written or may be available from a vendor that will translate HTML pages into WML
pages.

In summary the WML is

1. Tag-based browsing language.

2. Screen management (text, images).
 3. Data input (text, selection lists, etc.).
4. Inherits technology from HDML and HTML.
5. W3C XML-based language.
6. Hyperlinks & navigation support.

. NET Mobile Web SDK:

In November 2000, Microsoft released Beta 1 of the .NET Mobile Web SDK.
After installing the .NET platform, install the .NET Mobile Web SDK. In this article I show
you that how to create a simple mobile web application.

Let us see first how to create in WML language.

Let's see the typical Hello INDIA, as a mobile application written in WML.
Most important here is the header. The absolutely first character that is received by the
browser must be the < character that starts the line <?xml version="1.0">. Any other
characters, even a space or a carriage return or other will break the card