WAP and SQL

Mitch Connor

Hi, i want to create a WAP page that can be used to add information to a SQL database. Anyone here no how to do it, or a link to a tutorial on it?

I know how to connect Applets and Servlets to a SQL database if that is of any use.

reptonite

...I was thinking the same thing the other day, as i am messing around with mobiles myself. And these were my thoughts.

1. WAP is just a comms protocol, so we're still dealing with good old HTML here.
2. Server-side PHP would take care of the HTML/Form generation along with the queries

So essentially, all you have to do is create a really small form, embed the HTML in a PHP script, and bobs your uncle.

Or am I way off, do you think?

rsynnott

reptonite wrote:

...I was thinking the same thing the other day, as i am messing around with mobiles myself. And these were my thoughts.

1. WAP is just a comms protocol, so we're still dealing with good old HTML here.
2. Server-side PHP would take care of the HTML/Form generation along with the queries

So essentially, all you have to do is create a really small form, embed the HTML in a PHP script, and bobs your uncle.

Or am I way off, do you think?

Er, no, wrong. WAP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAP) is a markup language, rather similar to XHTML.

MrScruff

Er, no, wrong. WAP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAP) is a markup language, rather similar to XHTML.

Er, no wrong. WAP is a protocol, rather similar to HTTP. WML is the markup language.

rsynnott

MrScruff wrote:

Er, no wrong. WAP is a protocol, rather similar to HTTP. WML is the markup language.

Oops, yes, I must have been half-asleep :S

irishfeller

Mobile applications work just the same way as web application. Just use JSPs (or servlets). Write your pages using CHTML forms - CHTML is basically the standard for current phones (CHTML is just HTML with a few restrictions..i.e you only have one font,etc). XHTML is taking off on newer phones. If you want your site to be able to display on any phone then build it using WALL tags :http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/java/wall.php. This is a little more complicated but works well. These check what phone is trying to display the page and send it the page using the appropriate markup i.e WML, CHTML or XHTML as appropriate.

The Corinthian

irishfeller wrote:

CHTML is basically the standard for current phones (CHTML is just HTML with a few restrictions..i.e you only have one font,etc).

It's not. cHTML or Compact HTML is the mark-up language used in i-Mode. It is essentially HTML 1.0 with a few HTML 2.0 and custom tags (specific to i-Mode) thrown in.

Most phones in the European market are WAP based. As such they tend to use WML - often a mix of WML 1.1 or 1.2 with some 2.0 elements. Some devices will also support WAP’s version of xHTML whish is in reality a subset of proper XHTML. Many devices (PDA’s mainly) will also support bog standard (i.e badly written) HTML too, but how they render it varies considerably.

Simple answer is that if you’re looking for a simple solution, use WML for the presentation layer and whatever server-side language you prefer for the business logic. You can find a number of tutorials here.

If you want your site to be able to display on any phone then build it using WALL tags

WALL uses the WURFL, so if you’re not using Java you can use one of the other API’s that was written for it.