DEVELOPER TOOLS

How to start | WAP developer toolkits and emulators | WAP development tools
WAP developer forums | Other useful links | Directory of Location Based Services companies

How to start ?

If you are new to WAP and would like to learn WML, below are all the steps you need to follow:

1. Download the Nokia Wap development toolkit.  This toolkit will give you all necessary reading material, a WML editor, and a phone emulator on which you can test your future WML site.
2. Look at the WML code of existing WAP sites.  Go to www.wapall.com on the phone emulator to find different sites. After you fetch a WML page, you can view its WML source code in the WML editor.  This is a very good learning experience.  However, don't copy other sites' code (especially ours) because you will violate copyright laws.
3. Use developer forums to find answers to your questions, our favorite is Phone.com Developer Forum.
4. For your development, use only phone emulators provided by Nokia, Phone.com, Ericsson or Motorola.  These companies actually use the same browsers available in their emulators on real phones !
5. WML is easy.  The best way to learn it is by doing it.    Top

WAP developer toolkits and emulators:

If you are serious about WAP development, you should consider making your site suitable for all browsers currently available in the world market.  Each browser will display your WAP site differently.  Not all WML tags are supported with all browsers.  If you do not test your website with all available browsers, it is very likely that your website will not work on all phones.  When working with emulators, make sure you send your signal through a gateway to simulate actual phone connection.  Below are links to the developer sites where you can download the most commonly used browsers.    Top

• Phone.com
• Nokia
• Ericsson
• Motorola  

WAP development tools:

Because of slow connection and the limited size of each WAP deck, images for WAP browsers need to be in a bitmap format.  Some gateways are capable of converting GIF or JPG format into WBMP automatically, but you should make the conversion yourself to ensure universal compatibility.    Top

• Photoshop/Paintshop WBMP plug in - Use this plug in to open and save images in WBMP format.
• Online WBMP converter - This tool lets you convert GIF and JPG pictures into WBMP format.
• WBMP converter for Win32 - Windows platform drag and drop converter from GIF into WBMP format.

WAP developer forums:

If you have problems or questions, developer forums are a great resource to get answers.  There are thousands of developers like you with the same problems.  You don't have to reinvent the wheel.  Simply go to the developer forums where you may find the exact answers to your problems, already posted.    Top

• Phone.com Developer Forum
• Nokia WAP Developer Forum
• Motorola Developer Newsgroup
• The Independent WAP/WML FAQ - Extensive resource for WAP/WML development.

Other useful links:

• WAPforum.org

 

Our list is short because we know that this is MORE THAN YOU NEED to become a professional WAP developer !    Top

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