Mobile Internet Standards

Strathmore Mobile Boot Camp
November 2010
Mobile Website Development
Mobile Internet Standards

Facilitated by:
Michael Wakahe
Shujaa Solutions Ltd

Table of Contents
 Introduction to Mobile Web Standards

 Structure

 Presentation

 Client Side Scripting

 MIME Types

 Standardization Bodies

Copyright © Shujaa Solutions Ltd. 2010. All
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Introduction to Mobile
Web Standards

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Mobile Web Standards

 Fundamentally, there is one Web.

 Its content is standardized

markup, styles, scripts, and multimedia viewable

using web browsers.
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 A standards-based approach to Mobile Web

development ensures compliance and usability

across mobile browsers & platforms.

 Knowing all the rules & knowing when to ignore the

rules is necessary for success on the Mobile Web.

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 Various standards involved in:

 Structure

 Presentation

 Client Side Scripting

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Structure

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 XML-formatted markup defines the document
structure

 Handsets may support WML, XHTML, HTML4, HTML5
in varying degrees

 These XML standards have various versions &
derivations

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 Previously WML was dominant, now best
results with XHTML MP

 Specifically XHTML MP 1.0

 Most modern phones support WAP 2.0, which
uses XHTML MP as the primary markup
language while WAP 1.0 used WML.

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 XHTML-MP (Extensible Hypertext Markup
Language - Mobile Profile) is a specialization
XHTML designed to incorporate features
useful to mobile devices.

 XHTML-MP 1.0 was defined by the OMA and is
an extension of the original W3C-inspired
XHTML Basic 1.0.

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 Over time, OMA has developed XHTML-MP
and now has a proposed 1.2 version of its
specification.

 XHTML-MP comes with a mobile-friendly
means of using CSS to separate presentation
from the markup, just like on the desktop.

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 XHTML-MP 1.0 sets the base tags for mobile
markup.
 XHTML-MP 1.1 adds the <script> tag and
support for mobile JavaScript.
 XHTML-MP 1.2 adds more form tags and text
input modes.
 Currently many mobile browsers do not
support XHTML-MP 1.2.
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 Mobile Web sites targeting only smartphones
can use the full feature set of HTML 4 & in the
near future, HTML 5.

 Using desktop markup also invites
transcoders - network appliances designed to
optimize the Desktop Web for mobile devices
by reformatting markup

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 HTML 5 is the next major release of the foundational
language of the Web.

 It is currently a draft recommendation undergoing
active revision at the W3C
(http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/)

 HTML 5 will be the next standard for markup and
APIs supported in Web browsers.
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Presentation

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 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) control the

presentation.

 Most XHTML-MP mobile browsers support Wireless

CSS, CSS Mobile Profile, and/or CSS 2.

 CSS 3 is new, coming along with HTML5
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 The OMA-managed Wireless CSS standard is a
subset of CSS and is also part of the WAP 2.0
specification.

 Note that Wireless CSS is not backwards
compatible with WML.

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 Wireless CSS and CSS Mobile Profile are tightly
related, but independent mobile subsets of
CSS2 used to style XHTML-MP documents.

 Wireless CSS is a CSS2 subset standardized by
the Open Mobile Alliance.
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 CSS Mobile Profile is a CSS2 subset—with
some features borrowed from CSS3—that is
standardized by the W3C.

 The W3C’s goal is to align CSS Mobile Profile
with Wireless CSS as much as possible.

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 Overall, Wireless CSS is a more restricted subset and
an older standard targeted at Web browsers on
resource-limited mobile devices.

 CSS Mobile Profile adds in much more of the CSS2
standard to enable richer web documents but risks
full support on mass market mobile browsers.

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 You can add Wireless CSS to your document the same way as
you would for a normal HTML document.

 Link to an external global stylesheet using the following line:
 <link href="external.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

 Insert styles at the document head the following example
shows:
 <style>
 p{
 font-size: small;
 }
 </style>

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 Wireless CSS supports a lot CSS attributes, but
not all of them.

 More advanced styling techniques won’t likely
work across multiple mobile browsers.

 The best advice is to keep your CSS as simple
as possible.

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Client Side Scripting

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 Client-side scripting mainly through Javascript

 ECMAScript-MP or mobile JavaScript targets mobile

phones

 WMLScript is a scripting language which

complements WML.
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 Client-side scripting in mobile browsers used to be

the exclusive domain of smartphones, but this is

rapidly changing.

 Many mass-market mobile devices beginning to

support mobile JavaScript.

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 As with any client-side mobile technology, testing
JavaScript on actual mobile devices is critical for
effective development

 Testing on emulators and in Firefox might not
uncover syntax problems and performance issues
that can occur on the target mobile device.

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 Mobile and desktop JavaScript have virtually
identical syntax.

 The mobile version is stringent about ending
lines with semicolons.

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 Mobile JavaScript reduces the supported
character sets and excludes computationally
intensive language elements.

 It differs from its desktop counterpart in the
extent of its DOM and event support in the
mobile browser.
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 DOM and event support can vary from one
browser vendor and version to another.

 On-device testing is critical for success with
mobile JavaScript.

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 You can use device awareness and content
adaptation techniques that enable conditional
inclusion of scripting to target only mobile
browsers with support for JavaScript.

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MIME Types

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 Mobile MIME types (or content types) identify
the format of Mobile Web content.

 Formats are differentiated by web servers and
browser clients in an HTTP transaction using
MIME types

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 Text documents containing mobile markup

 Binary files include viewable or playable
content like ringtones, wallpaper and
videos, and binary executable mobile
applications
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Standardization Bodies

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 Mobile Industry Groups and Standards Bodies
adherence to Mobile Web industry standards and
best practices is important for flexible and cross-
platform development.

 Several Internet and mobile industry bodies govern
Mobile Web standards and recommended best
practices
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 W3C: This body standardizes mobile markup
languages and publishes best practices documents
for Mobile Web development and testing.

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 Open Mobile Alliance (formerly WAP Forum): This
body standardizes mobile markup and style
languages and other mobile technologies designed
to be interoperable across devices, geographies, and
mobile networks.

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 dotMobi (http://mtld.mobi): This body controls the
.mobi top-level domain, the content of which must
be device-adaptive and compatible with mobile
devices.

 This body also publishes best practices for Mobile
Web development and nurtures mobile
developers, marketers, and operators with online
communities. Rights Reserved.

 Mobile Marketing Association: This body
centralizes technology recommendations and
best practices for marketing and advertising
on mobile devices.

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 Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP)
(www.omtp.org/): This operator-sponsored
mobile industry group standardizing mobile
device access from Web applications.

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Mobile Internet Standards

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