Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Can't call it the web if it's not HTTP

Author:Matt Webb
Posted:12/19/1999; 9:12:59 AM
Topic:How to start WAPping
Msg #:13725 (In response to 13717)
Prev/Next:13724 / 13726

My opinion only, but you can't call it the web if it's not HTTP.

Not getting into technicalities here (that would be no fun!) but to all intents-and-purposes it is HTTP. I quote from Nokia's 'Getting Started, Nokia WAP Toolkit version 1.1' manual available from http://www.forum.nokia.com

[quote] The WAP is similar to a Web model and operates as follows:

  1. The user presses a phone key that has an URL request assigned to it.
  2. The user agent sends an URL request to a WAP gateway using the WAP protocol
  3. The WAP gateway generates a conventional HTTP request for the specified URL and sends it to the web server.
  4. The web server parses the HTTP request [cut unnecessary explanation of how]
  5. The web server returns the WML deck with the added HTTP header or the WML output from the CGI or other script application.
  6. The WAP gateway verifies the HTTP header and the WML content and encodes them to binary form. The gateway then creates a WAP response containing the WML and sends it to the user agent.
  7. The user agent receives the WAP response. It parses the WML response and displays the first card of the WML deck to the user.
[end quote]

All the WAP protocol is is a way of efficiently getting the data from the telephone exchange through the air to the phone. Everything else is HTTP.

The confusion can be abated. Optimize existing standards of the net, XML and HTTP and do it transparently to web developers. I should be able to put an HTTP server on port 80 and have the same content as easily browsed by MSIE 5 and a wireless cell-device.

I believe that WAP is doing just that. A couple of days ago, I used Nokia's WAP toolkit (to simulate the phone) and started serving WML pages. Repurposing my current data pulled from my database, it took me 10 minutes. Cool! I hadn't even looked at the WML spec before. Even cooler!

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