REPOST: Serving WML

> Hi again - thought it best to keep the two topics separately...
>
> I have just leased a virtual hosting package and want to provide GPRS
> access to my email server using WML.
>
> Now I have a couple of test pages that I have put up on the server that I
> want to view, but can't seem to get to them. I am not really sure about
> how GPRS works, but I thought that any internet server could serve WML as
> long as it was valid.
>
> I have read a little about gateways and from what I have read it seems
> that it would be my phone company that was responsible for providing that.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Mikey

Any takers for this question?

Purrrrlease?!?!?

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Re: REPOST: Serving WML

Mikey wrote:
>>Hi again - thought it best to keep the two topics separately...
>>
>>I have just leased a virtual hosting package and want to provide GPRS
>>access to my email server using WML.
>>
>>Now I have a couple of test pages that I have put up on the server that I
>>want to view, but can't seem to get to them. I am not really sure about
>>how GPRS works, but I thought that any internet server could serve WML as
>>long as it was valid.

correct.

>>
>>I have read a little about gateways and from what I have read it seems
>>that it would be my phone company that was responsible for providing that.

you own a phone company? get one of your lakey sysadmins to fix up what
you need ;-)

>>

just like with a std net connection you need to actually _have_ a
connection, and in your case you need to be able to reach the machine in
question (i.e. not connect thru a gateway that only give you access to
servers run by your connection provider).

a 5 second google gave me this page: http://www.filesaveas.com/gprs.html
maybe that helps you on your way?

whatever you do you need to cough up money for a GPRS connection :-)

>>Any ideas?
>>
>>Mikey
>
>
> Any takers for this question?
>
> Purrrrlease?!?!?
>

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RE: REPOST: Serving WML

> you own a phone company? get one of your lakey sysadmins to fix up what
> you need ;-)

LOL! The trouble with lackey sysadmins is that they never do what they are
told, always what's "kewl" - I have long since lost the energy required to
beat them into submission!

> just like with a std net connection you need to actually _have_ a
> connection, and in your case you need to be able to reach the machine in
> question (i.e. not connect thru a gateway that only give you access to
> servers run by your connection provider).
>
> a 5 second google gave me this page: http://www.filesaveas.com/gprs.html
> maybe that helps you on your way?
>
> whatever you do you need to cough up money for a GPRS connection :-)
>

All I want to do is to be able to allow access to my email from my phone, to
start off with and then move slowly from there.

Mikey

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Re: REPOST: Serving WML

Mikey wrote:
>>Hi again - thought it best to keep the two topics separately...
>>
>>I have just leased a virtual hosting package and want to provide GPRS
>>access to my email server using WML.

I have never built a site that served WML, but I know a
small bit about it

>>
>>Now I have a couple of test pages that I have put up on the server that I
>>want to view, but can't seem to get to them. I am not really sure about
>>how GPRS works, but I thought that any internet server could serve WML as
>>long as it was valid.

OK Google tells me GPRS is this:
http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/gprs/intro.shtml#1
(Sorry, like I said I've never served WML before!)

I definitely have never treaded into these waters. If GPRS is a
protocol that is built on top of HTTP then I can think of no reason why
your Apache server shouldn't be able to do this. The main task, I
think, would then be to check the browser's user-agent and generate WML
if it is a browser built for a phone.

Lucky you... I actually looked through some packages once upon a time to
serve WML. I remember liking what I saw from HAWHAW; perhaps it will
work for you?

This link will probably help you out:
http://www.hawhaw.de/faq.htm

>>
>>I have read a little about gateways and from what I have read it seems
>>that it would be my phone company that was responsible for providing that.

AFAIK yes, mobile phone companies provide the gateways to the net.
Sprint actually has a lot of stuff out there to help developers provide
content to their system, but I never got into it much (I remember it
being more work than my just-for-fun project justified).

>>
>>Any ideas?
>>
>>Mikey
>
>
> Any takers for this question?
>
> Purrrrlease?!?!?


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RE: REPOST: Serving WML

Sorry, I didn't completely follow this thread (deleted the messages before I really read them).

But I've served WAP/WML before. Made a couple of basic WML scripts and was able to access them via my cell phone.

I posted them on a regular web server, nothing fancy. All I had to do is make sure the headers being output were correct. There are a ton of cell phone emulator programs for the PC to test to see if your script is working properly (saving you from having to do all your testing on your cell phone). OpenWave makes a browser for many many cell phones and I believe they have an emulator. There are a couple other big ones, some that will emulate different types of cell phones. Forget the name now, but Google will tell you.

First I used this script as my index.php (default file that's served out):
############################### index.php
$redirect = "http://www.gryffyndevelopment.com/index2wap.php"; // ABSOLUTE URL to your WML file

header("302 Moved Temporarily"); // Force the browser to load the WML file instead
header("Location: ".$redirect);
?>
###############################

Here's the script that it was redirected to:

############################### index2wap.php
header("Content-type: text/vnd.wap.wml"); // set the correct MIME type
header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT"); // expires in the past
header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT"); // Last modified, right now
header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); // Prevent caching, HTTP/1.1
header("Pragma: no-cache"); // Prevent caching, HTTP/1.0

echo ("");
?>

testing

RE: Re: REPOST: Serving WML

> This link will probably help you out:
> http://www.hawhaw.de/faq.htm

Lovely jubbly! That is all I need now.

I just got through with talking to Virgin (phone company) and they have told
me that they have been having problems with their GPRS gateway over the past
few days, and having checked I can't even see their own pages!!! So, maybe
my pages are OK after all.

Again, thanks a lot for the link - anyway of avoiding the steep part of the
learning curve is good with me.

Mikey

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Re: Re: REPOST: Serving WML

Jason Barnett wrote:
> Mikey wrote:
>
>>> Hi again - thought it best to keep the two topics separately...
>>>
>>> I have just leased a virtual hosting package and want to provide GPRS
>>> access to my email server using WML.
>
>
> I have never built a site that served WML, but I know a
> small bit about it
>
>>>
>>> Now I have a couple of test pages that I have put up on the server
>>> that I
>>> want to view, but can't seem to get to them. I am not really sure about
>>> how GPRS works, but I thought that any internet server could serve
>>> WML as
>>> long as it was valid.
>
>
> OK Google tells me GPRS is this:
> http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/gprs/intro.shtml#1
> (Sorry, like I said I've never served WML before!)

WML = wireless markup language - an XML definition not unlike XHTML but
much more cutdown and geared toward, small mobile platforms (usually
with tiny screens and a limited input system - i.e. no 104-key keyboard :-)

quoting the site above:"
Because it uses the same protocols, the GPRS network can be viewed as a
sub-network of the Internet with GPRS capable mobile phones being viewed
as mobile hosts. This means that each GPRS terminal can potentially have
its own IP address and will be addressable as such.
"

>
> I definitely have never treaded into these waters. If GPRS is a
> protocol that is built on top of HTTP then I can think of no reason why

lets not confuse the issue here - GPRS is NOT a protocol built on top of
HTTP - if anything its the other way around. GPRS is a physical network
spec (is my language correct there?) capable of hosting a TCP/IP
environment upon which HTTP can travel so to speak.

> your Apache server shouldn't be able to do this. The main task, I
> think, would then be to check the browser's user-agent and generate WML
> if it is a browser built for a phone.

Jason is correct in this. a slightly different way would be to setup a
seperate site (e.g. vhost) geared purely to WML output (e.g.
wml.yourdomain.com) but the end result is the same.

obviously you will have to sort out the connection to the 'web' via your
phone. then its just a case of pointing it at you WML server to view a
page. when your at that stage you can actually get it to the fun side of
writing a secure php app that will output your email as WML pages....
hacing said that all those newfangled all-singing-all-dancing phones of
yester-minute have minibrowsers that are capable of viewing std (X)HTML
(e.g. the Opera mobile browser?) - in which case layout is your biggest
problem (i.e. cos of the small screen)....

there maybe a need to read/write special HTTP header 'by hand' in order
to fully communicate with the WML device... PHP give access to raw
request data so that should be a 'big' problem.

good luck on this - sounds interesting! keep us informed on how you get
on :-)

>
> Lucky you... I actually looked through some packages once upon a time to
> serve WML. I remember liking what I saw from HAWHAW; perhaps it will
> work for you?
>
> This link will probably help you out:
> http://www.hawhaw.de/faq.htm
>
>>>
>>> I have read a little about gateways and from what I have read it seems
>>> that it would be my phone company that was responsible for providing
>>> that.
>
>
> AFAIK yes, mobile phone companies provide the gateways to the net.
> Sprint actually has a lot of stuff out there to help developers provide
> content to their system, but I never got into it much (I remember it
> being more work than my just-for-fun project justified).
>
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>>
>>> Mikey
>>
>>
>>
>> Any takers for this question?
>>
>> Purrrrlease?!?!?
>
>
>

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Re: Re: REPOST: Serving WML

Mikey wrote:
>>This link will probably help you out:
>>http://www.hawhaw.de/faq.htm
>
>
> Lovely jubbly! That is all I need now.
>
> I just got through with talking to Virgin (phone company) and they have told
> me that they have been having problems with their GPRS gateway over the past
> few days, and having checked I can't even see their own pages!!! So, maybe
> my pages are OK after all.
>
> Again, thanks a lot for the link - anyway of avoiding the steep part of the
> learning curve is good with me.

the thing with the learning curve is that the only way to avoid the
sleep part is by standing still ;-)

glad to hear you're making progress.

>
> Mikey
>

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Re: REPOST: Serving WML

top posting (ouch) just to say 'rocking info' TG!

tg-php@gryffyndevelopment.com wrote:
> Sorry, I didn't completely follow this thread (deleted the messages before I really read them).

....

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Re: Re: REPOST: Serving WML

Mikey wrote:
>>This link will probably help you out:
>>http://www.hawhaw.de/faq.htm
>
>
> Lovely jubbly! That is all I need now.
>
> I just got through with talking to Virgin (phone company) and they have told
> me that they have been having problems with their GPRS gateway over the past
> few days, and having checked I can't even see their own pages!!! So, maybe
> my pages are OK after all.
>
> Again, thanks a lot for the link - anyway of avoiding the steep part of the
> learning curve is good with me.
>
> Mikey

Mikey: I'm not sure what your exact goals are here. If email is all you
need (which is what I was after as well) I found a cool shortcut. You
can just set up your server to page your phone with SMS whenever you get
email. You'll need to look into your provider's webpage to see the
exact process, but basically there is an "inbox" for each phone
number/account and you can send emails through SMS / MMS in that way.
Obviously if you want to be able to receive anything but text you'll
need MMS.


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