Cracking the Code:Developing for Mobile Devices

The Most Exciting Mobile Community on the Planet

Luca Passani, AdMob, WURFL Development

Non-Proprietary and Non-Confidential ;)

One Look at the Past of the Web

• First Generation Mobile Content wasn’t so cool by today standards (it was very cool in 1994)

• Authors of first generation web content did not know how to monetize. In fact, they were not even thinking about it.

• Thank Heaven companies that wanted to monetize the new opportunity came in and content got waaaaay cooler…

• Thank heaven, by that time, HTML, HTTP and other basic Internet standards were already established and the “monetisers” could not screw it up….

• These are all rough approximations….but you get the spirit

One Look at Today’s Mobile Web

• Companies are trying to monetize before mobile browsing is an established consumer reality

• From a usability view-point, support for Internet-related features is obviously an “afterthough” in most mobile devices on the market

• Device Fragmentation: can’t find a device like the other!• Also the result of technology innovation and evolution.• Drive to differentiate

• It’s a jungle: some arrogate the right to break established standands and practices, blatantly ignoring the needs of customers and other content providers:

• VodafoneUK and Novarra are breaking the mobile web!

Stop VodafoneUK and Novarra!

• VodafoneUK has transitioned all of its subscriber to the Novarra reformatting proxy.

• Content-providers can’t figure out device capabilities• User-Agent string and UAProf url are removed from request• Voda has introduced a whitelist of non-reformatted sites.

• Everyone is angry but Vodafone ignores every complaint

• …Just imagine what would happen if each ISP asked each website to register themselves on their whitelist!

• Vodafone is messing with the foundation of the Mobile Internet!

Standards

In the history of the Internet, never was so much said by so many meaning so little to so few

Winston Churchill (adapted), in a slightly different context

Standards in Mobile: OMA and W3C

• OMA did a decent attempt to address device fragmentation by introducing UAProf• Varying levels of support from OEMs• Not always rich enough in terms of actual capabilities • Actual exploiting of UAprof left as an exercise.

• W3C Answer to Device Fragmentation is One-Web• That’s denying that the problem is there in the first place!

• Neither OMA nor W3C (and in fact NO major organization) has had the guts to tell VodafoneUK to stop messing with the HTTP protocol.

• Who will safeguard the mobile environment? • Those who should are not doing that:

• Too busy with petty strategic moves • Too scared to mess with the big guy

Mobile Developers and the WURFL Community

• WURFL (Wireless Universal Resource File)• Device Description Repository

• Public Open Open-Source

• WALL (Wireless Abstraction Library)• Serving Different Mark-ups to different devices in one easy step with

on $5 a month hosting.

• Vibrant community of at least 3000 developers • probably many more

• Continuous Scrutiny of the Gory Details of Mobile Development:• New Devices, New Technologies, Operator configuration changes.

• Drive behind WURFL is not monetization• Of course, all members own or work for companies, but the spirit is to

share…

WURFL Public Repository

• pppp

<device fall_back="root" id="generic" user_agent="">

<group id="product_info">

<capability name="brand_name" value=""/>

<capability name="model_name" value=""/>

<capability name="unique" value="true"/>

<capability name="is_wireless_device" value="true"/>

<capability name="device_claims_web_support" value="false"/>

<capability name="has_pointing_device" value="false"/>

<capability name="has_qwerty_keyboard" value="false"/>

<capability name="can_skip_aligned_link_row" value="false"/>

:

Today

In a few weeks…

WURFL Specialized Communities

• In addition to browsing (WMLProgramming), new sub-communities have been created:

• WURFL and J2ME• WURFL and Adobe FlashLite• WURFL and Video• Members are recognized figures in their respective areas. • All forums are moderated for top signal/noise ratio…

• …already active today (URLs at the end of the presentaion)

From Current WALL….

<wall:menu colorize="true" autonumber="true">

<wall:a href="http://url1" title="Games">Games</wall:a>

<wall:a href="http://url2" title="Horos">Horoscopes</wall:a>

<wall:a href="http://url1" title="Kids">Kids</wall:a>

<p align="left" mode="nowrap"> <select> <option onpick="http://url1" title="Games">Games</option> <option onpick="http://url2" title="Horos">Horoscopes</option> <option onpick="http://url1" title="Kids">Kids</option> <option onpick="http://url2" title="Movies">Movies</option> <option onpick="http://url1" title="Music">Music</option> <option onpick="http://url2" title="Radio">Radio</option> <option onpick="http://url2" title="TV">TV</option></select> </p>

WML Openwave

<p> <a href="http://url1" title="Games">Games</a><br/> <a href="http://url2" title="Horos">Horoscopes</a><br/> <a href="http://url1" title="Kids">Kids</a><br/> <a href="http://url2" title="Movies">Movies</a><br/> <a href="http://url1" title="Music">Music</a><br/> <a href="http://url2" title="Radio">Radio</a><br/> <a href="http://url2" title="TV">TV</a><br/></p>

WML Nokia

<ol> <li><a acceskey="1" href="http://url1" title="Games">Games</a… <li><a acceskey="2" href="http://url2" title="Horos">Horoscop… <li><a acceskey="3" href="http://url1" title="Kids">Kids</a></… <li><a acceskey="4" href="http://url2" title="Movies"><b>Movie… <li><a acceskey="5" href="http://url1" title="Music">Music</a>… <li><a acceskey="6" href="http://url2" title="Radio">Radio</a>… <li><a acceskey="7" href="http://url2" title="TV">TV</a></li></ol>

XHTML MP Standard

XHTML-MP(advanced)

&

Compact-HTML(iMode)

…to WALL Next Generation!

• Forward-looking • Basic “Validated”

Components• New categorization of

mark-up family • XHTML- Advanced• XHTML-Simple• WML

<wng:navigation_bar separator=" | " background_color="#FEEB99">

<wng:css>

<wng:css_property name="font-size" value="9px" applies_to="advanced" />

<wng:css_property name="font-weight" value="bold" />

<wng:css_property name="margin-bottom" value="0.5em" />

</wng:css>

<wng:link href="search.html" text="Search" css_ref=".tblsyellow"/>

<wng:link href="myEbay.html" text="My eBay" css_ref=".tblsyellow"/>

<wng:link href="category.html" text="Category" css_ref=".tblsyellow"/>

</wng:navigation_bar>

• xhtml_support_level WURFL capability

• Supports graphics multiserving• Relies on Object Model• CSS Focus• Initially Java• Integrates with JSTL for Powerful

Conditional Programming

Popular first Page Rebuilt in WNG

Advanced XHTML

Simple XHTML

WML

xhtml_support_level = 3 or 4

xhtml_support_level = 1 or 2

xhtml_support_level = -1 or 0

iPhone (Safari), HTC Mogul (Windows Mobile Explorer), BlackBerry Pearl, SonyEricsson W610i, Nokia E61 (built in WAP Browser)

Motorola V3xx (Opera 8), Nokia 7373 (Nokia Browser), Sanyo RL 4930 (Netfront 3.1)

Nokia 7210

References• WURFL and WALL

• http://wurfl.sourceforge.net

• WMLProgramming (WURFL Mailing List)• http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wmlprogramming/

• Vodafone Rant (you can sign too!)• http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/vodafonerant/

• Global Authoring Practices for the Mobile Web• Better than W3C BPs!• http://www.passani.it/gap/

• WURFL J2ME mailing list• http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wurflj2me/

• WURFL Video• http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wurflvideo/

• WURFL FlashLite• http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wurflflashlite/

• AdMob, simple and effective way to monetize your mobile site:• http://www.admob.com

Luca Passani, WURFL Development

luca@admob.com | passani@eunet.no

www.admob.com | http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/