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Building a Mobile Application with Oracle9iAS Wireless using the HTTPAdapter

Module Objectives

Purpose

The purpose of this module is to demonstrate how to build a sample mobile application using Oracle9iAS Wireless. After creating a service for the sample application, you will be able to test it using a mobile simulator.

Objectives

After completing this module, you should be able to:

	List the steps necessary to create a mobile application
	Use the Service Designer to create a Master Service
	Test the application on a simulator

Prerequisites

Before starting this module you should have completed the following modules:

	Installing the Oracle9i Application Server
	Installing the Oracle9iAS Infrastructure module
	Installing the Oracle9i Application Server - Business Intelligence and Forms

Reference Material

The following is a list of useful reference material if you want additional information about the topics in this module:

	Website: http://otn.oracle.com/mobile
	Documentation: http://otn.oracle.com/ias

Overview

Oracle9i Wireless Overview

Oracle9iAS Wireless is the wireless component of the Oracle9i Application Server. In the wireless internet architecture, Oracle9iAS Wireless occupies the middle tier for developing and deploying wireless applications. Oracle9iAS Wireless provides the following features:

	Oracle9iAS Wireless includes pre-built Java content adapters that let you rapidly enable as wireless any content- databases, existing Web sites, e-mail systems, enterprise applications, and so on.
	Pre-built XML content transformers that enable your wireless applications to be accessible on different devices simultaneously.
	It offers a scaleable and open standards platform that enables carriers, enterprises, and internet companies to rapidly extend all their existing applications to any wireless Web devices and any phone through voice recognition and text-to-speech technology.
	It provides a platform that promotes e-businesses to become mobile e-businesses.
	A framework to create a HTML personalization portal where users can select the content they wish to access from their wireless device, as well as save often-used parameters that are called presets.
	Enables the creation of applications that push information to any messaging-enabled device (SMS, e-mail, and so on) based on the user preferences. Comprehensive support for the development of Location Based Services that personalize information based on users' locations.

Building a Mobile Application

Oracle9iAS Wireless provides an environment for you to design, build, test, and deploy your mobile applications. It provides the solution for the wireless enablement of your Web content allowing your content to be accessed by all mobile devices including phones, PDAs, pagers, and through multiple interfaces including voice. The four main steps include:

1.	Designing the application
2.	Building the application
3.	Testing the application
4.	Deploying the application

Designing the Application

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Before you design and build mobile applications, it is important to understand the architecture of mobile applications. The developer needs to adopt a different approach when developing applications for the wireless device as compared to the traditional desktop applications or the applications designed for the Web. Some of the important factors to consider when developing mobile applications include the following:

	Mobile devices with limited input and screen capabilities
	The form factor of the target device and the browsing and navigation features of the mobile device need to be considered
	Diversity of content sources and wireless devices including issues of different protocols, mark-up languages and portability constraints
	Deploying the application

Building the Application

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One can use your own tools and platform to develop the application. The application can typically be developed with Java Server Pages, XML, CGI, or Active Server Pages. The requirement is that the presentation logic of the application must return content that is compliant with Wireless XML. Wireless XML consists of device neutral XML tags which are designed for small screen and voice. For example, JSP is the presentation layer for Java centric Web applications. In standard Web applications, where HTML browsers are the client, JSPs generate HTML to these browsers. In the case of mobile applications, the JSPs need to output Wireless XML instead of HTML. Perform the following:

1.	In the code snippet below, note that the coding is very similar to generating HTML. For this example you have a simple program which displays the address of Oracle in the wireless device. Open wirelessdemo.xml from your working directory.
2.	Save this file (wirelessdemo.xml) on the application server. You can view this file View the file in a browser by specifiying the following URL: http://<hostname.domain>:7778/examples/wirelessdemo.xml
3.	To associate the application’s business logic with the presentation layer, invoke the Service Designer tool of Oracle9iAS Wireless and create the service. You will invoke the Service Designer tool of Oracle9iAS Wireless and create the Master Service using the HTTPAdapter. Open your browser and enter the following URL: http://<Server Name.Domain>:7778/webtool/login.uix Select the Service Designer tab. Click on the Create Master Service at the bottom of the window.
4.	The Basic Information window of the Master Service is displayed. Enter Address Details as the name, select the HTTPAdapter from the list, and then click Next.
5.	The Caching window of the Master Service appears. Caching is an optional parameter you will leave blank. Click Next.
6.	The Init Parameters of the Master Service appears. The Init Parameters are also optional. Leave this screen blank and click Next.
7.	The Input Parameters of the Master Service appears. For the URL row, the location of the application (in this example, the xml file at http://<hostname.domain:7778/examples/wirelessdemo.xml) on the server is placed in the default value field. The other values of REPLACE_URL, FORM_METHOD and INPUT_ENCODING can be left blank (the default values are automatically utilized). Click Next.
8.	Since the Output Parameters is dependent on the adapter chosen in the first step, this window may or may not be relevant. In this example of the HTTPAdapter, it bypasses this window and goes directly to the Async Agent window. For this example, enabling this application as asynchronous is not necessary. Leave the box blank and click Next.
9.	The final screen, Result Transformers, appears. Since Result Transformers are not required for our specific application, click Finish.
10.	The new Master Service is listed in the Service Designer.

Testing and Deploying the Application

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To test the application in the simulator, click on the Test icon and you see the contents of the XML displayed:

Once you are satisfied with the output, you can deploy the application on a number of devices depending on your end users.

Module Summary

In this module, you should have learned how to:

	Identify the steps necessary to create a mobile application
	Create a Master Service based on the HTTPAdapter in the Service Manager webtool
	Test and deploy the application on a simulator