WAP glossary of terms

ammonet offers WAP enabled web hosting and expertise in WAP, WMST development.

 
 
Introduction Phones FAQs Glossary

WAP Glossary of Terms

 

DTD
Document Type Definition. This definition states which elements can be nested within others. A DTD defines the names and contents of all elements that are permissible in a given document, how often an element may appear, the order in which the elements must appear, whether the start or end tag may be omitted, the contents of all elements (that is, the names of the other generic identifiers that are allowed to appear inside them), the attributes and their default values and the names of the reference symbols that may be used. 

Element
An element specifies the markup and structural information in a WML deck. Some elements contain a start and an end tag such as the <p> and </p> tags, others are single elements such as the <br/> tag. 

HDML
Handheld Markup Language 

PDA
Personal Digital Assistant. Usually a hand-held device, such as the Palm Pilot. WAP isn't just for cellular phones. 

SGML
Standardised Generalised Markup Language

UA
User Agent. Software that interprets WML, WMLScript, WTAI and other forms of code. 

W3C
World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3c.org 

WAE
Wireless Application Environment. This specifies a general-purpose application environment based fundamentally on World Wide Web technologies and philosophies. WAE specifies an environment that allows operators and service providers to build applications and services that can reach a wide variety of different platforms. WAE is part of the Wireless Application Protocol. 

WAP Gateway
A WAP gateway is a two-way device (as is any gateway). Looking at if from the WAP device's side, since a WAP device can only understand WML in its tokenized/compiled/binary format, the function of the WAP gateway is to convert content into this format. Looking at it from the HTTP server's side, the WAP gateway can provide additional information about the WAP device through the HTTP headers, for instance the subscriber number of a WAP capable cellular phone, its cell id and even things such as location information (whenever that becomes available). 

WAP Server
A frequently misused term. A WAP server by itself is really nothing more than a HTTP server - ie. a web server. In order to confuse everyone, Nokia has a product which they call a WAP server which is a WAP gateway and a HTTP server all in one. This is actually a content-providing server and a gateway. The gateway takes care of the gateway aspects, and the web server provides the contents. 

WDP
Wireless Datagram Protocol 

WML Card
A single WML block of navigation and user interface in a WML deck. A WML card must exist inside a WML deck containing one or more cards. WML decks are XML documents. 

WML Deck
A collection of WML cards. The whole deck is loaded when the browser requests a URL, and access to individual cards in the deck can be specified in the URL. 

WMLScript
Scripting language for WAP devices. Based on JavaScript, but less powerful. 

WSP
Wireless Session Protocol. This provides the upper-level application layer of WAP with a consistent interface for two session services. The first is a connection-mode service that operates above a transaction layer protocol, and the second is a connectionless service that operates above a secure or non-secure datagram transport service. 

WTLS
Wireless Transport Layer Security. The "equivalent" of SSL (Secure Socket Layer) widely used in the HTML world - although not identical in functionality. 

WTP
Wireless Transaction Protocol 

XML
Extensible Markup Language. W3C's standard for Internet Markup Languages. WML is one of these languages. XML is a subset of SGML.


Contact 


   
Copyright © 1998-2012. ammonet. All rights reserved.