WAP
WAP or Wireless Application Protocol is a protocol used to access the 'internet' on mobile phones. Normal websites cannot be show on most cellphones because of the language used, size of the websites and the size of the cellphone's screen. WML (ow wirelless markup language) is a toned down version of HTML (hyper text markup language) used to design WAP sites.
The difference between normal websites and wapsites is the size, content and the way to navigate. Wapsites are smaller in size compared to normal websites because most mobile phones have a lot of RAM to store them plus the cellphone charges are much more than landline or DSL and the likes. The content is also less than you would get on a website because of the screen size. The way used to navigate most wapsites is using three 'buttons' or links which are mostly SELECT, BACK and NAVIGATION key. The SELECT and BACK are usually softkeys (which are link on the bottom of the screen with corresponding buttons directly underneath them). The navigation button (depending on the make of the phone) could be a mini-joystick or up and down keys on the keypad. The method that you would use to navigate a wapsite is that you would use your navigation key to highlight the link you want to go to and then use the select soft key to go to it and use the back softkey to go back.
What is WAP?
The wireless industry came up with the idea of WAP. The point of this standard was to show internet contents on
wireless clients, like mobile phones.
WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol
WAP is an application communication protocol
WAP is used to access services and information
WAP is inherited from Internet standards
WAP is for handheld devices such as mobile phones
WAP is a protocol designed for micro browsers
WAP enables the creating of web applications for mobile devices.
WAP uses the mark-up language WML (not HTML)
WML is defined as an XML 1.0 application
The Wireless Application Protocol
The WAP protocol is the leading standard for information services on wireless terminals like digital mobile phones.
The WAP standard is based on Internet standards (HTML, XML and TCP/IP). It consists of a WML language specification,
a WMLScript specification, and a Wireless Telephony Application Interface (WTAI) specification.
WAP is published by the WAP Forum, founded in 1997 by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Unwired Planet. Forum members
now represent over 90% of the global handset market, as well as leading infrastructure providers, software developers
and other organizations.
WAP Micro Browsers
To fit into a small wireless terminal, WAP uses a Micro Browser.
A Micro Browser is a small piece of software that makes minimal demands on hardware, memory and CPU. It can display
information written in a restricted mark-up language called WML.
The Micro Browser can also interpret a reduced version of JavaScript called WMLScript.
What is WML?
WML stands for Wireless Markup Language. It is a mark-up language inherited from HTML, but WML is based on XML,
so it is much stricter than HTML.
WML is used to create pages that can be displayed in a WAP browser. Pages in WML are called DECKS. Decks are constructed
as a set of CARDS.
What is WMLScript?
WML uses WMLScript to run simple code on the client. WMLScript is a light JavaScript language. However, WML scripts
are not embedded in the WML pages. WML pages only contains references to script URLs. WML scripts need to be compiled
into byte code on a server before they can run in a WAP browser.