From 23a56bd50b04211da3cab45f72c3390711b2416b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mitja Felicijan Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2023 18:35:08 +0200 Subject: Moved notes and posts into subfolders --- .../2021-12-30-wap-mobile-web-before-the-web.md | 202 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 202 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/posts/2021-12-30-wap-mobile-web-before-the-web.md (limited to 'content/posts/2021-12-30-wap-mobile-web-before-the-web.md') diff --git a/content/posts/2021-12-30-wap-mobile-web-before-the-web.md b/content/posts/2021-12-30-wap-mobile-web-before-the-web.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..442943b --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2021-12-30-wap-mobile-web-before-the-web.md @@ -0,0 +1,202 @@ +--- +title: Wireless Application Protocol and the mobile web before the web +url: wap-mobile-web-before-the-web.html +date: 2021-12-30T12:00:00+02:00 +type: post +draft: false +--- + +## A little stroll down the history lane + +About two weeks ago, I watched this outstanding documentary on YouTube +[Springboard: the secret history of the first real +smartphone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_Vh9h3Ohw) about the history of +smartphones and phones in general. It brought back so many memories. I never had +an actual smartphone before the Android. The closest to smartphone was [Sony +Ericsson P1](https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_p1-1982.php). A fantastic +phone and I broke it in Prague after a party and that was one of those rare +occasions where I was actually mad at myself. But nevertheless, after that +phone, the next one was an Android one. + +Before that, I only owned normal phones from Nokia and Siemens etc. Nothing +special, actually. These are the phones we are talking about. Before 2007. +Apple and Android phones didn't exist yet. + +These phones were rocking: + +- No selfie cameras. +- ~2 inch displays. +- ~120 MHz beast CPU's. +- 144p main cameras. +- But they had a headphone jack. + +Let's take a look at these beauties. + +![Old phones](/assets/wap/phones.gif) + +## WAP - Wireless Application Protocol + +Not that one! We are talking about Wireless Application Protocol and not Cardi +B's song 😃 + +WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol. It is a protocol designed for +micro-browsers, and it enables the access of internet in the mobile devices. It +uses the mark-up language WML (Wireless Markup Language and not HTML), WML is +defined as XML 1.0 application. Furthermore, it enables creating web +applications for mobile devices. In 1998, WAP Forum was founded by Ericson, +Motorola, Nokia and Unwired Planet whose aim was to standardize the various +wireless technologies via protocols. +[(source)](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/wireless-application-protocol/) + +WAP protocol was resulted by the joint efforts of the various members of WAP +Forum. In 2002, WAP forum was merged with various other forums of the industry, +resulting in the formation of Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). +[(source)](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/wireless-application-protocol/) + +These were some wild times. Devices had tiny screens and data transmission rates +were abominable. But they were capable of rendering WML (Wireless Markup +Language). This was very similar to HTML, actually. It is a markup language, +after all. + +These pages could be served by [Apache](https://apache.org/) and could be +generated by CGI scripts on the backend. The only difference was the limited +markup language. + +## WML - Wireless Markup Language + +Just like web browsers use HTML for content structure, older mobile device +browsers use WML - if you need to support really old mobile phones using WML +browsers, you will need to know about it. WML is XML-based (an XML vocabulary +just like XHTML and MathML, but not HTML) and does not use the same metaphor as +HTML. HTML is a single document with some metadata packed away in the head, and +a body encapsulating the visible page. With WML, the metaphor does not envisage +a page, but rather a deck of cards. A WML file might have several pages or cards +contained within it. +[(source)](https://www.w3.org/wiki/Introduction_to_mobile_web) + +```html + + + + +

Welcome to the Example homepage

+ + +``` + +There is an amazing tutorial on [Tutorialpoint about +WML](https://www.tutorialspoint.com/wml/index.htm). + +## Converting Digg to WML + +This task is completely useless and not really feasible nowadays, but I had to +give it a try for old-time sake. Since the data is already there in a form of +RSS feed, I could take this feed and parse it and create a WML version of the +homepage. + +We will need: + +- Python3 + Pip +- ImageMagick +- feedparser and mako templating + +```sh +# for fedora 35 +sudo dnf install ImageMagick python3-pip + +# tempalting engine for python +pip install mako --user + +# for parsing rss feeds +pip install feedparser --user +``` + +Project folder structure should look like the following. + +``` +12:43:53 m@khan wap → tree -L 1 +. +├── generate.py +└── template.wml + +``` + +After that, I created a small template for the homepage. + +```html + + + + + + + + % for item in entries: +

${item.title}

+

${item.kicker}

+

${item.title}

+

${item.description}

+ % endfor + + + + +``` + +And the parser that parses RSS feed looks like this. + +```python +import os +import feedparser +from mako.template import Template + +os.system('mkdir -p www/images') + +template = Template(filename='template.wml') + +feed = feedparser.parse('https://digg.com/rss/top.xml') + +entries = feed.entries[:15] + +for entry in entries: + print('Processing image with id {}'.format(entry.id)) + os.system('wget -q -O www/images/{}.jpg "{}"'.format(entry.id, entry.links[1].href)) + os.system('convert www/images/{}.jpg -type Grayscale -resize 175x -depth 3 -quality 30 www/images/{}.jpg'.format(entry.id, entry.id)) + +html = template.render(entries = entries) + +with open('www/index.wml', 'w+') as fp: + fp.write(html) +``` + +This script will create a folder `www` and in the folder `www/images` for +storing resized images. + +> Be sure you don't use SSL and use just normal HTTP for serving the content. +> These old phones will have problems with TLS 1.3 etc. + +If you look at the python file, I convert all the images into tiny B&W images. +They should be WBMP (Wireless BitMaP) but I choose JPEGs for this, and it seems +to work properly. + +Because I currently don't have a phone old enough to test it on, I used an +emulator. And it was really hard to find one. I found [WAP +Proof](http://wap-proof.sharewarejunction.com/) on shareware junction, and it +did the job well enough. I will try to find and actual device to test it on. + + + +If you are using Nginx to serve the contents, add a directive to the hosts file +that will automatically server `index.wml` file. + +```nginx +server { + index index.wml index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html; +} +``` + +## Conclusion + +Well, this was pointless, but very fun! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. +I will try to find an old phone to test it on. If you have any questions, feel +free to ask in the comments. -- cgit v1.2.3