XML Reference Guide

InformIT Articles and Sample Chapters

As you might imagine, "wireless development" is a pretty broad topic, and while I could just focus on pointing you to articles about WML, you'd really only be getting part of the story. So here's a list of resources that includes overview information, the meat of the topic, and pointers to some of the topics that are important to wireless development, but tangential to XML.

"Introduction to Mobile Application Architectures" by Heather Schneider, Valentino Lee and Robbie Schell, from Mobile Applications: Architecture, Design, and Development (Prentice Hall PTR, 2004, ISBN 0131172638) explains how, as mobile devices become more common, it becomes imperative to understand how this environment poses unique application architecture challenges. This sample chapter helps you understand the issues involved in developing applications for mobile devices.

"Concepts for Working with Wireless Applications" by Mark Beaulieu, from Wireless Internet Applications and Architecture: Building Professional Wireless Applications Worldwide (Addison Wesley, 2002, ISBN 0201733544) talks about the nearly universal process for developing wireless applications, regardless of the devices or networks to be used. The process involves four steps: identifying the user of the final product, building relevant content, developing the application, and testing the application with a real device on a real network in a typical user situation.

Mark also follows up with "Building the Four Wireless Application Families of the Wireless Internet", which explains the four families of wireless applications serve wireless Internet users: messaging, web browsing, interactive, and conversational wireless software development.

"For Wireless Security, First Understand Wireless Programming" by Seth Fogie, Cyrus Peikari from Maximum Wireless Security (Sams, 2003, ISBN 0672324881) provides a look at the basics of wireless programming, including XML, WML, i-mode, Java, and more, with an eye towards preparing you to think about security issues.

Chris Bennett and Frank Coyle have put together a great series that covers much of the WAP development process, with "A WAP Primer", "Wireless Markup Language", "WMLScript", and "Wireless Markup Language--Beyond the Basics".

"The SMIL Specification", by Tim Kennedy and Mary Slowinski, from SMIL: Adding Multimedia to the Web (Sams, 2001, ISBN 067232167X) explains Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, which enables you to create animations and other graphical content for cell phones using markup.

You should also check out other guide resources that talk about web design (for more information on effective XHTML development) and J2ME (used to create many wireless applications).

Books and eBooks

WAP 2.0 Development by Chris Tull (Que, 2002, ISBN 0-7897-2602-5) concentrates on WML and WMLScript, but while it covers the gamut of these applications, it's also appropriate for those starting out. It covers both static and dynamic content. (Read this book online)

WAP Development with WML and WMLScript by Ben Forta, Keith D. Lauver, Paul Fonte, Robert M. Juncker, Amy O'Leary, Ronan Mandel and Dylan Bromby (Sams, 2000, ISBN 0-672-31946-2) covers the gamut of WAP development, from the basics to more obscure issues. (Read this book online)

Mobile Applications: Architecture, Design, and Development by Valentino Lee, Heather Schneider and Robbie Schell (Prentice Hall PTR, 2004, ISBN 0-13-117263-8) is, as the title suggests, focused on the grander issues regarding mobile development, but serves as a good foundation. Also, unlike most books, it uses .NET instead of Java. (Read this book online

Building Dynamic WAP Applications with MobileDev by Stéphane Hogue, Leslie Hirst and Nicolas Fortin (Sams, 2001, ISBN 0-672-32177-7) gives an overview of the general issues and then explains how to use, MobileDev, "a powerful but easy-to-use development tool that helps you build, test and manage wireless applications based on the Wireless Application Protocol." (Read this book online)

Essential WAP™ for Web Professionals by Damon Hougland and Khurram Zafar (Prentice Hall PTR, 2001, ISBN 0-13-092568-3) is a get-down-to-it look at WML and WMScript. It also includes sample applications written in ASP, Perl, and Java (both JSP and servlets). (Read this book online)

Macromedia® Flash™ Enabled Flash Design and Development for Devices by Christian Cantrell, Mike Chambers, Branden Hall, Robert Hall, Andreas Heim, Craig Kroeger, Steve Leone, Markus Niedermeier, Bill Perry, Fred Sharples, Glenn Thomas, and Phillip Torrone (New Riders Publishing, 2002, ISBN 0-7357-1177-1) covers, well, Flash design and development on devices. With devices, though, that's not necessarily a simple affair, and this book also covers how to deliver Flash-authored content to non-Flash-enabled devices. (Read this book online)

PowerBuilder® 9: Internet and Distributed Application Development by Bill Green and John D. Olson (Sams, 2003, ISBN 0-672-32499-7) includes a chapter on using Powerbuilder to create mobile content. Read this book online)

Specifications and Implementations

One great place to start looking for information on wireless development is the Openwave Developers Network. Openwave makes the browser in most of today's cell phones, and in addition to various articles and tips, you can download the Openwave Phone Simulator (in case your phone doesn't have the latest and greatest, or you want to see what your application looks like on the less advanced models) and various SDKs. Officially, the WAP specifications are maintained by the Open Mobile Alliance, the group formed by the merging of the WAP Forum and the Open Mobile Architecture Initiative. They maintain a very long list of specifications, including XHTML Mobile Profile and WML.