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GENERAL TECHNICAL QUESTIONS
MULTIMEDIA
RE: Audio Media Types
Question: When will audio media types
be registered?
Answer: WAP Forum does not need to register
any audio media types unless it defines a unique one. To date this
has not bee necessary and not foreseen. The use of standard audio
types would be specified in any specifications requiring them.
The WINA registration process allows the WAP Forum
and other people to register content types as needed with only minor
WAP Forum involvement. Questions regarding registration can be sent
to Meiy Palaniappan, who is responsible for running the WINA process.
RE: Color
Question: Which tags should be used in
order to utilize color in WAP 1.2.1?
Answer: There is no specific markup support
for color in WAP V1.2.1. The exception is images where the specifications
require support for the WBMP where images are supported but beyond
this the manufacturers can support which types they like, and if
the device has a color display the support for color images results.
Please refer to WAP 2.0 specifications for color support.
RE: Connecting PPG to an MMS server
Question: Is it possible to establish
one connection point between an MMS server and a PPG with the Session
Initiation Application (SIA) in the WAP Client?
Answer: Since this scenario is not directly
addressed by the specifications, there are different possibilities
for the client and the server.
The client implementation might be such that the push and MMS user
agents cannot share the same WSP session and the client is unable
to support two. In that case, the previous session will need to
be disconnected and a new one will need to begin.
The server might have a similar restriction. Various clients manage
sessions will not be controllable and you should be prepared to
support clients that actually reuse the session. However, it is
not totally implausible that such a restrictive 'feature' would
exist.
In order to avoid any problems, a new session should always be
established when switching the used service. However, disconnecting
the old one by sending a Disconnect PDU is not required, since the
WSP server has to be able to discard unused sessions. On the other
hand, using WTP concatenation would make sending the Disconnect
quite cheap, since it would be transported in the same datagram
as the Connect for the new session. Even cheaper would be using
the same peer address quadruplet for the new session, since this
will automatically cause the old one to be discarded.
The situation will be different, if the client is able to maintain
several sessions in parallel. In that case you could just keep on
using one session for MMS, and create new sessions for push as directed
by the session initiation requests.
RE: Device Certification for MMS
Question: Did the WAP Forum release device
certification for MMS application layer?
Answer: WAP V2.0 is the first release to
include MMS and a device certification program has not been launched
for this release yet. When a certification program is released the
ICS editor will include all specifications covered by the certification
program
RE: Image Visualization
Question: Is image visualization a mandatory
WAP requirement? If so, is it a mandatory requirement to support
at least WBMP format or "all" the image formats?
Answer: A WAP Browser MAY or MAY NOT support
images, depending on the capabilities of the device. If a WAP Browser
supports images it must support the WBMP image type. However the
browser may also support other image formats and these are determined
by the manufacturer and should be indicated through the use of the
http accept headers. Also, a Browser MAY support images but choose
not to just as a PC browser can opt for this. Therefore simply relying
on the user agent type to determine whether you should sent and
accepted image type is not really sufficient. Finally there is the
use of UAPROF. If a device and supporting infrastructure (WAP Proxy
etc) supports UAPROF this will give you, the content author and
manager, the ability to still further tune your application to the
capabilities and preferences of the device and user.
RE: Subject Definition
Question: Do the specifications define a maximum size for
images sent over MMS?
Answer: There is no limit of message size (it doesn't matter
whether the carried content is an image or not) in MMS spec. Even
protocol under MMS application such as WSP, http doesn't have such
limitation as transport. That kind of limit comes from implementation.
RE: MMS Images
Question: Which format of images can be sent over MMS?
Answer: Any format can be sent according to WAP MMS spec
if it has an appropriate MIME type.
The actual format sent should be one supported by the device.
RE: MMS Relay
Question: Is there technical information about the functions
that take place between the MMS Relay and:
- Legacy Wireless Messaging systems
- Internet - email server
- Other MMS systems
- MMS Server
Answer: At this time, there is no specification document
for your requested area in WAP Forum.
RE: MMS functionality
Question: Is MMS functionality in the Gateway
stack mandatory or optional?
Answer: There is no requirement to WAP Gateway
or proxy to implement WAP MMS based on WAP-206 and WAP-209 specifications.
Because WAP MMS is the application framework on the top of WAP stack
(either 1.X or 2.0) WAP Gateway is supposed to pass all MMS PDU
through between MMS Client and MMS Proxy-Relay server. MMS Proxy-Relay
server is NOT the same entity as WAP gateway, and rather the origin
server and the push initiator from stack's point of view. A clearer
picture can be found in WAP-205, MMS Architecture Overview specification.
MMS functionality is an independent set of features, thus it's
not mandatory in order to conform to WAP 2.0 conformance itself.
Back to top
WAE
RE: wbmp Writer
Question: Is there are source code available
for a real time wbmp writer?
Answer: It is believed that there are open
source versions of wbmp writers on the Internet.
For reference the WBMP specifications for WAP version 1 (1.1, 1.2
and June 2000 Conformance release) can be found in the WAE specification.
In WAP Version 2 the WBMP specification is in the WAEMT specifications.
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WDP
RE: Sending Data to the wap-gateway
Question: How do you send data to the
wap-gateway via a socket connection and the UDP-protocol?
Answer: When using CSD, WAP 1.x always runs
ultimately over UDP. However, there are two different services:
one that is reliable and another one that provides unreliable delivery.
The latter is a bit simpler to implement, but the entity operating
your WAP gateway may have disabled it.
RE: WAP Bearer
Question: Which WAP bearer allows a notebook
to connect via handy to the service provider (wap-gateway)?
Answer: If the notebook believes that the handy is a modem,
then it is circuit-switched data (CSD).
RE: WDP Number
Question: Does protocol WDP number the come out PDU? If
not, they are numbered by which? In the event of loss, which protocol
can manage this effect?
Answer: No, unless you are referring to fragmentation and
re-assembly support with this. For instance, WDP over IP is standard
UDP/IP with all the associated features. WDP is a pure datagram
protocol, so recovery from packet loss has to be handled on a higher
protocol layer. Either it is done by the transport protocol, which
in the WAP 1.x stack is WTP, or by the application protocol using
connectionless services.
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WML
RE: Emulator Access
Question: How do you use the emulator
to access wml content on a remote computer?
Answer: Virtually all emulators provide for
both local content and requesting remote content. Local content
can be accessed as local files, i.e. just like Netscape Communicator
or Internet Explorer for HTML files by opening the file from within
the browser. Remote and local files can be fetched using HTTP from
an HTTP Server on the machine identified by the URL. If using the
file opening method index.wml or any other filename will need to
be selected. If using the HTTP request index.wml etc may be the
default for the request if the URI is not completely resolvable
or overridden by the HTTP server. This depends on the HTTP server
configuration. In order to access remote content
a) The emulator will need to be configured to request from target
URLs via HTTP
b) The destination URL has an HTTP server
c) The destination HTTP server is appropriately configured for wml
and other
WAP content types and any defaults set, e.g. index.wml for URLs
that are not fully resolved.
RE: WML tags
Question: Are there any specific tags
in WML grammar to support MMS?
Answer: There is no direct link between WML
and MMS. WML is a mark up language and MMS is the messaging framework
that enables you to send and receive rich content messages between
mobile terminals. There is no WML tag that calls MMS functions due
to the fact that it creates a potential security risk.
RE: WML DTD for WAP 1.2/1.2.1
Question: What is the correct doctype
for WAP 1.2 and WAP 1.2.1? The URL in the 1.2 Spec suggests using:
<!DOCTYPE wml PUBLIC "-//WAPFORUM//DTD WML 1.2//EN"
http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/wml_1.2.xml
Unfortunately this document does not seem to exist. The URL http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/wml12.dtd
returned something looking as the WML .2 dtd.
Answer: The WML DTD form WML 1.2 is found
at: http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/wml12.dtd.
However, please note that this is not the DTD to be used together
with the WAP 1.2.1 (June 2000) conformance release. That one is
instead found at:
http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/wml13.dtd
and belongs to the WML 1.3 specification. Note that links to all
DTDs associated with each release are found at the respective web
pages of the releases in question. Start at:
http://www.wapforum.org/what/technical.htm
and use the links on that page to get access to previous releases.
RE: WML 1.1
Question: In WML 1.1 DTD, why is the entity
amp shown as &#38; and not as #38; ?
Answer: Section 7.1 of the WML1 specification
discusses why ampersand is encoded this way. It is because ampers
is an XML language and amp (&) and lt. (<) have special meaning
and therefore have to be escaped.
RE: WML 1.3
Question: How do you use "PCDATA"
(WML 1.3)? What is the meaning of <!ELEMENT a (PCDATA IbrIimg)*>"?
Answer: This question pertains to the definition
of the DTD of WML V1.3. PCDATA is an SGML construct for document
text. (please refer to HTML 4.01 for more info).
The line <!ELEMENT a (#PCDATA |br|img)*> in section 9.9 of
the WML1.3 defines the short form of anchor (section 9.8) and the
element <a> can have parameters of
i) br, i.e. the br element defined in 11.8.4,
ii) img, i.e. image element defined in 11.9,
iii) PCDATA, i.e. text associate with the anchor to define to the
user its purpose, etc. For more information on the definition of
XML DTDs in general, refer to the XML specification at http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006.pdf.
.
RE: Mobile Device Support
Question: Which mobile devices support
WML but not WML Script? Is it the case that all devices with Mobile
browser 4.0 and higher support WML Script and the Browser versions
below 4.0 DO NOT support WMLScript?
Answer: WAP Forum defines the minimum level
of functionality for certified devices through a class conformance
requirements document which is available on the web site for all
versions currently certifiable. Support for WMLScript and WMLScript
libraries specifications is required for all certified products.
Therefore all certified devices will support WMLScript and WMLScript
libraries, uncertified devices may or may not support WMLScript
and WMLScript Libraries but should support them if they are meeting
the intent to be interoperable. The WAP Forum does not keep a list
of which devices do or do not have which feature, this is a product
vendor matter. However there may be other sources of such information.
Questions relating to Mobile Browser 4.0 should be addressed to
the vendor.
RE: WML Tool Chain
Question: Is there a tool chain that can
build WML documents that can be displayed on a simulated wireless
device?
Answer: Most manufacturers of devices make
SDKs for their devices that provide authoring environments and emulators
for running the applications.
Some tooling suppliers also provide WAP support.
RE: Relationship of WML with JavaApplet
Question: Can WML run with JavaApplet
or PHP? Did the WAP Forum declare a tag <applet> for WML in
the DTD?
Answer: WAP Forum has made no statements
in WML so far with regard to enabling JavaApplets.
RE: Sending info through WAP
Question: Can information be sent through
WAP in HTML similar to <FORM ACTION=""METHOD=POST">?
Is there a WML file with these tags?
Answer: WML V1 does not support <form>
Sending information can be achieved using <go> with the post
or get method.
WML2 and XHTMLMP forming the markup languages of WAP 2.0 support
the FORMS module of XHTML Modularization.
RE: Transportation of Client ID
Question: Is it possible to transport Client ID over WAP?
Answer: ClientID specification does not cover transport;
the specification is intended only to define a format for a client
identification, for use within the WAP environment. Any application
will be defined in other specifications.
The only specification so far to specify a ClientID application
is
WAP-183-PROVCONT-20010724-a, which you can download from the public
area of the WAP Forum web site on the following URL http://www.wapforum.org/what/technical.htm.
This specification defines the content encoding of configuration
parameters presented to the WAP client through the provisioning
process.
Although this specification references the ClientID specification,
this is an informative reference, and the content encoding defined
in the PROVCONT specification actually makes no assumptions about
the internal encoding of the client identification parameter.
Back to top
WTA
RE: Implementation of WTAI Specification and
PhoneBook suite.
Question: Is the full WTAI Spec implemented
on existing mobile phones with the ability to use the PhoneBook
suite of functions? Will they present any security issues (especially
other WTAI commands that do things like initiate a call) Do the
phones actually support them?
Answer: WTAI is available on some WAP devices.
However, it is optional for all "data only" devices in
WAP and mandated only for those requiring WTAI. Given that WTAI
is optional, please refer to the manufacturers specifications and
use the device identification to determine if the use of the WTAI
by your application is appropriate for that device.
Phones with the up.browser support WTAI make call functionality
- this covers most wap phones in the market. There are several web
sites which list the wap features supported by various phones.
RE: Accessing Mobile Phone Address Books
Question: Is it possible for the WML script
to access the address book of a mobile phone? If not, can WTLS perform
this function?
Answer: WTLS is short for Wireless Transport
Layer Security. It has nothing to do with WML or the phonebook.
Please refer to the technical specifications found at http://www.wapforum.org/what/technical.htm.
There are a couple of approaches to interact with the phonebook
in the terminal. One approach would be to examine SyncML. Search
engines will be able to provide a lot of information. Additional
information about WAP and SyncML can also be found from the developer-areas
that the different handset manufacturers provide.
Within the WAP standard itself the WTAI specification covers interaction
with the phonebook in the terminal. The specification can be found
at:
http://www.wapforum.org/what/technical.htm.
Only some parts of the specification are implemented in a selection
of devices from different handset manufacturers. Additional research
is needed in order to find which functions are implemented.
RE: Browsing Content during a Voicecall
Question: According to WTAI specs initiating
a wtai://wp/mc; 5551212 in my WML. is blocking and no WTA events
are generated or delivered on the WAP device once the call is placed.
Is it possible to either initiate another WTAI method like wtai://wp/sd
(dtmf) while the above call is in progress? If so, how to envoke
the wtai dtmf method? Is it through installing an event handler
or a channel or by some other method? If this is not possible how
can we send dtmf across the voice channel, without actually typing
on the phone keypad.
Answer: When invoking the makecall function
of WTAI, the WML deck in the browser environment after the call
is set up, and the links in the visible deck may be used to send
DTMF! Additional components are not required to be installed.
However, you can not continue browsing other content without ending
the voicecall. This would require a class A terminal.
Back to top
Misc.
RE: Calculating Time
Question:How do you develop a WAP application
that calculates the time a particular WAP page employs to get to
the phone from the moment of the page request? In other words, how
do you estimate the speed of the network?
Answer: Write an application that returns
a deck with an embedded action that fetches another deck. On the
server, measure the elapsed time from sending the GET response to
the receipt of the next GET request. This will include the delay
of the gateway, WAP device, etc. An alternative is to "ping"
the WAP device if the network/firewalls permit.
RE: Client Certified WAP 1.2.1
Question:What exactly is a client certified
WAP 1.2.1? Does Client certified WAP 1.2.1 products means that it
must support Push, UAProf , etc.? If no, is it possible to have
a client certified WAP 1.2.1 with the same functionalities as a
client certified WAP 1.1? What are the benefits of having a client
certified WAP 1.2.1?
Answer: When a client is certified for any
WAP release (e.g. WAP1.1 or WAP J2K), it means that it must support
all the "Mandatory" features listed in
1. Class Conformance Requirements (CCR), which is at the level
of specifications (e.g. Push, UAProf etc.)
2. Static Conformance Requirements (SCR) for each specification
which is at the level of detail within a given specification.
In addition, a client can support whatever "Optional"
features it likes. An easy way for you to get the list of features
supported by a certified client for any WAP release is to ask the
certified client for its WAP Certification Report (WCR). The WCR
lists each of the specs in CCR and each of the items in SCRs, and
provided information on the following:
a) The set of features that is mandatory in order to be supported
for the release by all clients.
b) The exact set of optional features supported by the certified
client in addition to the mandatory ones.
c) Whether a given supported feature was tested or not as part
of the certification campaign. Note that even if it was not tested,
the client is still legally obligated to be conformant to WAP specs,
and onus is on client to prove that they are conformant if someone
points out that they are not.
Please be aware that there are currently only WAP 1.1 certified
clients. As such, WCRs are only for them, and not for WAP J2K. However,
for WAP J2K, you can ask for their Implementation Conformance Statement
(ICS). The ICS is essentially the input from which the WCR ultimately
gets generated. From the ICS, you can get following pieces of information
-
a) The set of features that are mandatory to be supported for the
release by all clients.
b) The exact set of optional features supported by the certified
client in addition to the mandatory ones.
You cannot get whether a given feature has been tested or not from
ICS. Having said this, the simple way to get the answer to your
specific question is to look at the ICS for WAP 1.1 and ICS for
WAP J2K and look at the list of mandatory features in both.
If the difference in the mandatory features is zero between WAP
1.1 and WAP J2K, then you could theoretically have a WAP J2K client
with exactly same functionality as WAP 1.1 if neither implements
any optional feature. In practice, it is highly likely that WAP
J2K clients will support several optional features and will have
more functionality than WAP 1.1 clients.
Answer 2: The Class Conformance Requirements for WAP V1.2.1
or June 2000 Conformance Release are available on the web site at
http://www1.wapforum.org/tech/documents/WAP-215-ClassConform-20001213-a.pdf
This clearly states Class C (data only): mandatory features of Browser
(WAE + WML + WMLScript + WMLScriptLibs + UACache) + protocol stack
are mandatory; optional features of Browser + protocol stack and
the entire specs for Security, UAPROF, PUSH, WTA, WIM, WMLScriptCryptoLibs
all optional.
Class B (data + telephony): mandatory features of Browser + Protocol
Stack + PUSH + WTA + Security all mandatory, Optional features of
Browser + Protocol Stack + PUSH + WTA + Security and entire specs
for UAPROF, WIM, WMLScriptCryptoLib all optional. Class A (complete):
All mandatory and optional features of all specs are mandatory
So the answer to your question is "no" and what it brings
to have V1.2.1 certification is testing and compliance to a tighter
specified set of specifications as there were improvements between
V1.1 and V1.2.1 in most specs.
RE: Cookie RFC2965
Question:Is cookie RFC2965 conformance
on the cards of WAP Forum specifications?
Answer: The current HTTP State Management
specification calls out support for RFC2109 the predecessor of RFC2965
and the appropriate RFC at the time the HTTPSM specification was
originally written. The group regularly checks whether RFCs are
updated and whether supporting the updated RFC makes sense. This
is one such case. It has been discussed.
RE: Denying Access to a WAP Application
Question: Does a cellular carrier have the capability
of denying user access to a WAP application? If so, what are the
criteria for doing so?
Answer: This is an issue that deals with
service provider policy and not one of technology and WAP Forum
specifies technology. Any service provider may choose to deny a
user access to a WAP application for one of a number of reasons
but the reasons for this and the means to achieve it are in principle
no different to that of any other internet application.
RE: End Session Command
Question: Can a phone hang-up be associated
with an end session command?
Answer: No. There is nothing indicated in
the WAP Specifications that specifies how or when a proxy should
indicate to an application server that the session has terminated
whether explicit tear-down of the session or abrupt loss of connectivity.
Certainly NAS and GGSN components involved in the end to end transport
may generate alerts as to connectivity loss which may allow your
application server to know given the right supporting infrastructure.
RE: Linking WAP applications to a database
Question: Is it possible to link WAP applications
to a database?
Answer: WAP is no different to other web
technologies. Access to a database is a server side function and
not a function of the markup language. There are many techniques
to do this depending on the server side technology you are using.
There are some very good texts on these subjects in the context
of WAP including "Dynamic WAP Application Development"
from Manning.
RE: MIDI
Question: Which version of WAP supports
MIDI or SP-MiDI format?
Answer: WAP does not support MIDI. Devices
may or may not implement this functionality but this is a device/UA
issue.
RE: MSISDN in Cookie
Question: Is the MSISDN address is sent
to the server in an HTTP-cookie?
Answer: There is nothing in the WAP specifications
that requires the sending of an MSISDN in a cookie. There have been
many discussions of the reasons why the sending of the MSISDN as
an identifier may be problematic. To be precise, WAP has only released
a cookie spec recently though suppliers of WAP gateways/proxies
have been providing cookie proxy functions to allow applications
to support cookies even though the devices don't. It is possible
some manufacturers are using the MSISDN in the cookie as a form
of client identifier to match requests and sessions etc. However
this is an implementation issue not one for the specifications.
RE: WAP Proxy
Question: What are the minimum changes that need
to be made to a web server computer so that it will respond to a
WAP proxy? Where can this information be found?
Answer: All that is required from a web server to support
WAP content when receiving request via HTTP from a WAP proxy is
support for the various content types specified for WAP and the
device, i.e. add .wml, wmls (and wmlc and .wmlsc if you have the
WBXML tokeniser and WMLScript compiler available for your server),
.wbmp for the wireless bitmap and any other graphics content types
required.
RE: Radius in WAP Architecture
Question: Is information available regarding the (possible/eventual)
use of Radius (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service) in the
WAP architecture?
Answer: The use of Radius is not specified within the WAP
Forum's specifications. Radius can be used as part of the establishment
of base IP connectivity, e.g. dialup RAS or GGSN etc, or tied into
user authentication processes in a number of ways. The actual use
of Radius in these circumstances depends on the vendors' implementations
RE: Tracking Hits to .wml pages
Question: What method should be used in tracking Hits to .wml
pages? Using MediaHouse's Stat Server, extensions can be added to
the list, added .wml, but there are no results. I have considered
an onload function that would write to a text file every time a
page is hit. Do you have any recommendations, or examples?
Answer: There is no reason why normal methods would not
work, including the MediaHouse Stat Server once appropriately configured.
There seems to be references in their material for this product
which should be addressed with them. Some aspects of WAP markup
and script to can be used in conjunction with back end functions
in the server, but the standard approach should be utilized.
RE: Use in JSP
Question: How do you use WAP & WML in JSP?
Answer: Using JSP with WAP is no different to using JSPs
with the web. There are some books that cover this well including
one my Hoover et al.
RE: Utilizing WAP on a web server
Question: How do you begin utilizing WAP with a web server?
Answer: There are four basic steps:
a) Ensure there are one or more WAP clients
b) Ensure there are is some means of access from those clients (LAN
is an emulator, real wireless networks for devices) plus WAP gateways
where necessary (e.g. wireless network access or LAN is using WAP
protocols)
- Set up the web server for WAP content types to support (wml, wmlc,
wmls, wmlsc, bmp etc..). WAP places no extra requirements to the
web other than the support for its content types". Enter the
five mime types from above and the corresponding file extension
(e.g. .wml).
- Save and you are done! Now all you need is WAP content and a WAP
browser.
RE: WAP & Cache
Question: Is the WAP standard explicit in how a terminal or gateway
deals with caching?
Answer: The level of support of Caching semantics specified
in WAP-120-CacheMod as this is a mandatory specification. (Please
refer to the CCR) However a cache can be of Zero bytes length for
a number of reasons - no cache storage implemented, no heap space
available if implemented using this approach etc. Therefore, the
behavior of caching may be different between devices and even on
a device at different times. This will alter the number of fetches
from an application server, but the application should not be altered
as a result of this. The perception of the application on the user
who is used to other devices or better cache performance at different
times may differ.
RE: WAP over IP
Question: Is there information available regarding WAP over IP?
Answer: In the use of the WAP V1 protocols (WDP, WTP and
WSP), WDP uses UDP/IP over all bearers that support IP access, e.g.
GSM-GPRS, standard LANs etc. Detailed information can be found in
WDP and architecture specifications.
In the use of WAP V2 protocols (TCP/IP + HTTP etc.), the WAP V2
Architecture and TCP specifications need to be reviewed.
For all the specs refer to the WAP Forum web site specification
download area on the following URL: http://www.wapforum.org/what/technical.htm.
RE: WAP-167-Service Indication
Question: What is the reason for using "vnd.wap.si"
for textual forms and
"vnd.wap.sic" for tokenized form (Table A.1.3 - SI-CF-003
& SI-CF-003)?
Answer: The terminal needs to be able to determine what
kind of content it receives in order to process it correctly. This
is accomplished by looking at the MIME media type, which is carried
in the Content-Type header. Consequently, since the textual and
binary representations are different from each other, although they
carry the same information, they each need their own MIME media
type (vnd.wap.si and vnd.wap.sic respectively).
Further, the Push Proxy Gateway also needs this information to
adapt the push message to the receiving terminal's capabilities.
If it receives a textual SI it may need to convert it into its binary
counterpart, while it can leave a binary SI unaltered since it is
mandated on all terminals supporting WAP push.
Back to to
WAP 2.0
MULTIMEDIA
RE: Color, Animation and Sounds Support
Question: Is there a document which describes the
image, sound file, and other media formats supported by MMS and
WAP 2.0? Does WAP 2.0 support color, animation, and sampled sounds?
Where are these formats documented?
Answer: WAP Forum's MMS specifications are
silent on the content types supported. There are sufficient mechanisms
specified by WAP Forum to allow content type negotiation between
MMS client and application along with any MMS Proxy-Relay. The existing
WAP content types would be good candidates for MMS content but clearly
additional image content types etc are very likely to be supported
by MMS devices. WAEMT only describes the WBMP that is the only unique
image type. Devices supporting WAP Forum MMS may also support 3GPP
MMS as both specifications share a common genesis. 3GPP has been
more explicit over which content types are expected and this may
be helpful in understanding this space, especially in GSM, GPRS
and their evolution to 3G will be deployed, but really you need
to contact device suppliers directly.
RE: Color Resolution
Question: What is the recommended color resolution for the display?
Answer: To date the WAP specifications have made no assumptions
about the definition of displays. There have been some working assumptions
about typical minimum displays for characters etc but nothing more.
RE: MMS Support of HTTP
Question: Is http supported between the client and the proxy/relay?
The spec suggests that WSP is required but this is not consistent
with the move towards HTTP1.1.
Answer: According to the specification, WAP-206 MMS Client
Transactions, for e.g. chapter 7.1.1 says,
"The MMS Client that wishes to send an MM message SHALL invoke
a WSP/HTTP POST operation with the M-Send.req message embedded as
the content body."
This spec is using this "WSP/HTTP" coupling consistently.
The intent of doing this is to indicate there is no bundle of MMS
client transactions and WSP in principle. But because WAP HTTP spec
wasn't stable enough when the MMS spec was produced, the issue may
not have been fully addressed.
The MMS group knows there are a lot of voices similar to you and
we're keeping it in mind because we're continuing MMS spec work.
RE: Network Layer
Question: Does WAP rely on the use of IP as the network layer
protocol for communications between the WAP gateway and the mobile
device? Or, is it an open protocol in that sense?
Answer: There is no requirement to WAP Gateway or proxy
to implement WAP MMS based on WAP-206 and WAP-209 specifications.
Because WAP MMS is the application framework on the top of WAP stack
(1.X or 2.0, i.e. can be chosen, depending on other conditions).
WAP Gateway is supposed to pass all MMS PDU through between MMS
Client and MMS Proxy-Relay server. MMS Proxy-Relay server is NOT
the same entity as WAP gateway, and rather the origin server and
the push initiator from stack's point of view. You can get a better
picture if you read WAP-205, MMS Architecture Overview specification.
MMS functionality is an independent set of features, thus it is
not mandatory in order to conform to WAP 2.0 conformance itself.
RE: Pictograms
Question: In WAP-213-WAPInterPic-20010406-a, it states that images
must be supported in the first release, but does not specify what
format images need to be in. The examples provided in the document
uses .wbmp images. Does this imply that wmbp is the only format
supported or are other formats such as jpeg and gif supported?
Answer: The graphics type for the Pictogram image can be
any format supported by the device. WBMP is the only mandated graphics
format for a WAP device supporting graphics but other types are
likely to be supported. The mechanisms to advertise support for
various image types are well known (accept headers, UAPROF etc.)
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WTA
RE: Recommendation for Over The Air-HTTP
Question: Regarding the WAP 2.0 specification WAP-266-WTA-20010711-p,
is WTA recommended for Over-The AIR-HTTP? Section 5.2 of the specification
suggests that dedicated secure WDP ports are a must for WTA services.
Does it mean WTA services are limited to WSP? If it is so, it is
not consistent with the move towards HTTP 1.1.
Answer: WTA group has noticed the above and has marked this
as one of issues that should be addressed in its future releases.
The transition from WSP to HTTP requires, for WTA, to use other
WAP security tools. Unfortunately, this was not possible for WAP
2.0 partially because of more urging issues and partially because
the required security features, which are mandatory for WTA (and
optional for other parts in WAP), were still in development at the
time.
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MISC.
RE: Backwards Compatibility
Question: Is WAP 2.0 backwards compatible?
Answer: WAP V2 has been designed to be backward compatible
in different ways depending on the part of WAP you are considering.
The protocols and security of WAP V1 are included in WAP V2, with
some enhancements, thereby allowing backwards compatibility directly.
To this WAP V1 protocols have been added the new Internet protocols,
i.e. TCP/IP, HTTP/1.1 and TLS. At the protocol level compatibility
is a function of the mandated support for the traditional and Internet
protocol stacks and the CCR defines this level of compatibility.
Currently this is in Architectural Consistency review and states
that a server/proxy must support both stacks ensuring compatibility.
At the application enablement functions the story is slightly different.
The requirement given to the group was backwards compatibility from
WAP V2 devices to WAP V1 services. This gave somewhat more latitude
than a strict backwards compatibility. Backwards Compatibility is
ensured in the following ways.
- a device may implement (WAESpec AND WAEMT AND WMLScript AND WMLScript
Libs AND UACaching AND HTTPSM) AND (WML V2 OR (WML1.3 AND XHTMLMP))
- The option of XHTMLMP AND WML V2 gives direct access to the new
WAP2 services, which are to be written in XHTMLMP, and existing
WAP V1 services.
- The option of WML2 allows existing WAP V1 services and WAP2 services.
However while WML2 contains all the semantics of WML1 it is not
syntactically identical as deference has been given to XHTML wherever
possible. Therefore a translation from WML1 to WML2 for WAP V1 services
is required. You will also note that WAP V1 devices are not assured
access to WAPV2 services as this would require translation and WAP
Forum has chosen not to specify any transform as the semantics of
WML2 or XHTMLMP cannot be loosely translated to WML1. However vendors
may market offerings for this.
RE: Fonts
Question: Which font type do WAP mobiles use on their screen?
Answer: WAP Forum makes no statement of font types in its
version 1 specifications.
For these devices the font is determined by the device manufacturer.
Neither do the version 1 specifications provide any means to switch
fonts should more than one be provided other than italic, bold and
so on where different fonts could be used to show differences. WAP
version 2 includes a style specification WCSS that is a profile
of CSS2 with some extras. This will provide more presentational
control in conjunction with the markup language specifications including
fonts.
RE: SCRs
Question: Does WAP 2.0 have a SCR and CCR compiled similar to
the WAP 1.2? If so, where is it located?
Answer:
c) All specs have SCRs in them giving the conformance criteria
for that spec. There was a CCR that addressed the mandatory and
optional features for device classes for WAP V1.1, WAP 1.2 and WAP1.2.1.
This is not yet available for WAP 2.0.
d) Write the content.
RE: WAP Enabled Software
Question: Is there a specific type of software that needs to be
installed on the server in order to be wap enabled?
Answer: To be able to read "WAP" pages the WAP
capable browser needs to be told that it is receiving WAP pages.
The way a server does this is by letting the browser know what mime
type s to accept. An example of a mime type is text/vnd.wap. The
specific manner to do this will depend on the web server. Apache
is a common web server, which requires the following steps:
- Go to the configuration file in ~/www/conf/httpd.conf
, there you will see a bunch of mime types. Type the following information:
AddType text/vnd.wap.wml - wml
AddType image/vnd.wap.wbmp - wbmp
AddType application/vnd.wap.wmlc - wmlc
AddType text/vnd.wap.wmlscript - wmls
AddType application/vnd.wap.wmlscriptc - wmlsc
- Save the file and restart.
- If you have IIS server you need to find the Internet service manager.
This is under Admin tools on a windows 2000 server but it all depends
on how you set up IIS.
Once you have found it click your way to "File types"
under "HTTP headers
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