During previous phases of the Web's growth, developers had enough to think about just planning applications for desktop computers and laptops. Web architectures had already developed three tiers (database, server, and client machine) in nearly every case. If the developer needed to go outside the firewall, or had to access multiple back-end systems, things got much trickier. True, none of this was exactly a picnic, but as Web programming became a mature science, standards and practices began to fall into place.
Like it or not, though, it's time for another Web architecture advance. When planning Web applications, developers increasingly have to consider the needs of wireless/mobile users -- and the limitations of the microbrowsers that display Web information.
It's not just that Web developers need to consider mobile devices and the microbrowsers they run; the fact is, they have to consider such a wide variety of devices and microbrowsers that the job of providing broad connectivity seems nearly impossible at first glance.
What's more, microbrowsers are crippleware, by desktop standards -- most don't support cookies or any HTML above version 3.2, JavaScript, frames, or tables. Scripting may be possible through Wireless Markup Language (WML), a scripting language affiliated with XML, but this is a new skill for many programmers, who may feel that the learning curve is not worth the effort.
Some enterprises are falling back on a class of applications known as "transcoders" (see Resources for links to sample transcoders). Transcoders automatically shift traditional Web content into formats compatible with mobile devices, including WML and HTML as needed.
Still, some say that transcoders come with limitations of their own, particularly when used to translate dense sites, which often end up as awkward tangles when ported to wireless devices.
To get around the problem of managing this new environment, some enterprises are finding homespun shortcuts to the arduous task of hand-coding material for each and every potential microbrowser they might wish to serve.
Still another group of enterprises has turned to an emerging group of toolmakers determined to add a helpful new layer to Web architecture. A number of entrepreneurial firms have created tools that allow developers to skip the step of coding individually for every microbrowser. (By one estimate, there are more than 50 currently available in the marketplace.)
These tools go about their business in different ways, and require different levels of intervention by programmers and/or Web designers, but they typically stand between the existing Web architecture and the ultimate end user of the microbrowser. These intermediary tools make the job of translating from fleshed-out Web to microweb much simpler.
When companies begin a wireless development project, they have an almost bewildering range of choices as to which microbrowser/device platforms they'll support and how they'll go about supporting them. At the simplest level, they can strip away the complexities of existing Web code and port Web pages to their lowest common denominator for wireless.
When legal publisher West Group of Eagan, Minn., began their wireless effort, they limited their platform support to a few of the major wireless devices used by their customers, that is, the Research In Motion Blackberry devices supporting the Palm OS, the Journada, and iPAQ handheld computers.
West Group already had the content it wanted to deliver available in "standard" format on its Westlaw.com server, so the challenge was figuring out how to convert it for this family of wireless devices.
To offer wireless options to its users, West Group changed the presentation layer to a new user interface tailored to microbrowsers. And although the company was only counting on supporting a short list of devices, the new interface was coded down to the simplest possible HTML in an effort to reach a broader audience. "We wanted to make it so simple that it would work with any of the quirky browsers out there," says Rick Dauk, the project's lead software engineer.
Another approach assumes that vendors want to tailor their content more specifically to individual devices -- not only to their browsers, but also their form factors. AVIDWireless of Dallas, Texas, has assembled a database containing specs on 178 devices and 80 parameters that might vary within those devices.
"I think a lot of people thought that wireless devices were just like browsers, and that they could develop just once," says Rod Montrose, CEO of AVIDWireless. "But that actually doesn't work very well, because people don't use wireless devices the way they [use] desktops. Because of the small screen size and low bandwidth, it's very tedious to go through a standard menu structure."
To help companies produce content appropriate to each individual device, AVIDWireless developed a database that takes into account minute differences in screen size, form factor, and other elements.
The AvidRapidTools (ART) framework lets developers use a language they are familiar with (such as Java) and tools they are familiar with (their own Java IDE) to create wireless applications that can run on any device.
ART handles all the content generation for them, regardless of whether they want their applications to run on Web-enabled phones, PDAs, two-way paging devices such as RIM's Blackberry, or even on desktop PCs. Below is a sample of a simple transaction as handled by ART.
Listing 1 creates a screen with a text line, an input field, and a button on the screen. The program then processes the name entered on the screen, saves it to a session variable, and passes control to another screen.
package com.avidwireless; // your package name appears here
import java.io.*;
// Custom classes
import com.voicedataware.*; // AVIDRapidTools classes
***
* SCREEN: MainScreen
* PURPOSE: The main entry form. This is used to:
* - Get input from the screen in this case Name
* - Set a session variable to pass to the next screen
* - Set a result which causes transition to the next screen
*
* From this we will branch to a second screen called ScreenTwo
* MODE: The allowable values for mode are:
* None
* RESULT: The form will return these result codes:
* NextScreen
*
*============================================================
*
* Source Safe Version information
* $Header: MainScreen.java $
* $Modtime: 11/26/00 7:22p $
*
* @author Delynn Megason/AVIDWireless
* @version 1.0.0.1
* @since Nov. 15, 2000
*/
public class MainScreen extends ARTMain
{
// EVERY form defines the NAME constant which points to their correct name
public final static String NAME = "MainScreen";
/* Static constants for this form. */
final static String SUBMITBUTTON = "submitButton";
final static String YOURNAME = "yourName";
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Another vendor that believes translation from standard Web site to microsite is best handled on a case-by-case basis is San Mateo, ca-based AvantGo. AvantGo, however, asks companies to design a special user interface -- typically 160 x 160 pixels -- which they feel best duplicates the original experience of the full-sized Web page.
"What we've learned is that the hardest part of mobile implementation is not standards, it's the editorial component of it -- the human thinking that goes into deciding what the right set of functionality is for a mobile user," says Linus Upson, chief technology officer of AvantGo. "We don't think you can take a human designer and put it into a piece of software."
AvantGo's approach uses common Web standards throughout its architecture, including HTML, JavaScript, XML, SSL, and http. To deploy applications using AvantGo's M-Business Server -- which is sold on a per-user basis -- corporate clients deploy one AvantGo application on the server side, and special AvantGo client software provides the runtime environment on the device side.
In some cases, of course, enterprises decide that their wireless Web integration needs are so complex that they'd rather have an outside expert step in. That's the role played by Xora Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. -- and, increasingly, competitors such as Aether Systems and Orsus Solutions.
Xora, whose clients include AT&T Wireless and Fujitsu, has built out a suite of modules that allow companies to bring powerful enterprise-class software such Siebel, i2, Clarify, and Remedy to employees' wireless devices.
For Home Finishes Inc. of Livermore, Calif., Xora made it possible to reduce the company's key Clarify application down to an app usable through mobile devices.
Home Finishes, which services home warranties 24 hours a day for the first year of a home's ownership, manages service requests through a Clarity Clear Support application, custom job scheduling, and a Timberline ERP application. Service workers stay in touch with the home office via Nextel phones.
Prior to bringing in Xora, Home Finishes field workers could only communicate service data or time sheets to the central office by faxing, calling in the data, or sending sheets in via overnight delivery. This process generated more than 4,000 paper time sheets per week.
Xora's platform connected all of the field workers, each of whom were able to use a single log-in. Service members can now validate their entries against the ERP system, so entries are error-free.
What's more, the whole process is far simpler than the paper trail was, notes Xora director of engineering Pramod Jajoo. "We studied the work flow, and were able to translate down everything to 10 or 15 cell phone screens," he notes.
Despite the progress the Web industry has made in bringing standard content to microbrowsers, it's still not clear how Web-to-microbrower architecture will look when the dust settles.
For one thing, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), which fuels most of the applications being built in the U.S., is by no means the final victor in the competition for wireless environments.
WAP features WML, a streamlined version of HTML intended for small screen displays. As mentioned earlier, it also uses WMLScript, a compact JavaScript-like language that runs in limited memory environments found in wireless devices.
Competing wireless protocol i-mode, from NTT DoCoMo of Japan, is a proprietary system that uses a subset of HTML known as cHTML to display content. i-mode, which provides Web browsing, e-mail, calendar, chat, games, and customized news, may yet have a shot at capturing U.S. wireless device business. Reasons include speed -- i-mode devices may soon be able to offer 384 KB throughput, putting WAP's pokey 19.6 KB to shame.
Add to that the fact that competition for both the client-side microbrowser and the server-side application and translation parser remains quite intense, and it seems clear that it's too soon to predict which wireless Web architectures will become the most popular.
On the other hand, wireless Web applications are here to stay as a part of the corporate information architecture, and developers will ignore them at their peril. From now on, planning for Web architecture growth will include planning for the active participation of mobile wireless devices, ensuring a newly-mobile and newly-efficient workforce capable of tasks impossible only a deca.de ago.
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AvantGo works with companies to design special user interfaces
for microbrowsers that effectively mimic the experience of the full-size Web page.
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AVIDWireless has assembled a database containing specs on 178 devices and 80 parameters that might vary within those devices.
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Xora has built out a suite of modules that allow companies to bring powerful enterprise-class software such Siebel, i2, Clarify, and Remedy to employees' wireless devices.
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Palowireless.com includes
a list of English-language resources on i-mode, the wireless Web protocol created by NTT DoCoMo of Japan.
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WebSphere Transcoding Publisher is an easy-to-use, server-side solution for bridging data across multiple formats, markup languages, and devices. Transcoding Publisher adapts, reformats, and filters content to make it suitable for pervasive computing, giving companies better access to customers, business partners, and mobile employees on a variety of devices.
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IBM's Patterns for e-business site features a number of reusable assets that can help speed the process of developing applications.
- For coverage of a broad range of wireless issues, you'll definitely want to pay a
visit to the Wireless area on developerWorks.
Anne Zieger is principal analyst with PeerToPeerCentral.com (http://www.peertopeercentral.com), an analyst firm covering the enterprise side of the peer-to-peer computing and software market. Previously, she served as contributing editor for technical publications such as Information Week, CIO, and Byte.com.
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