2 :: How it works
WAPL can be used in a number of different ways.
The method that you use will largely depend upon your particular requirements but thankfully each method is fairly interchangeable.
For a quick overview and diagrams of how the WAPL architecture works, please see the WAPL overview.
You don't need an existing application to utilise WAPL, especially if your product is aimed at just a mobile audience.
If you have any experience with HTML pages you'll be able to design and build pages in no time at all. If you have written pages using server side scripting such as PHP or ASP then you'll be able to write dynamic sites just as fast.
WAPL can be used as a 'View' component of an existing 'Model, View, Controller' (MVC) application.
If you take this approach, your 'Model' (data) and 'Controller' (logic) remain largely unchanged. Your application will do what it always did but by utilising a WAPL 'View' component, your application will be available on all mobile-internet devices. And it will look perfect every time.
Of course you don't need an MVC framework to use WAPL, you can use any of the webservice methods to firstly determine whether a visitor is on a mobile handset and secondly to turn your WAPL into valid markup.
Using WAPL is extremely easy and only requires that you pass valid WAPL to Wapple's servers using the SOAP or REST webservices. The webservice server responds with the markup for you to output to the device. You have complete control over content, design and presentational elements.
1. Send the device's headers to the Wapple webservice using REST or SOAP, to test if the visiting device is a mobile device. In PHP, this is done with the $_SERVER variable.
2. Wapple webservices responds true or false.
3. If the device is a mobile, generate your WAPL. If not, continue as if a web browser and output HTML / XHTML generated by your own application.
4. Send WAPL to the Wapple webservice and receive perfect optimised markup for the device.
5. Output this markup to the device.
To ensure optimal performance during the beta testing phase, several restrictions have been put in place. Your dev key is restricted to the domain you supply when registering, and you are also restricted to 500 API requests every 24 hours to our servers. Once this limit has been reached, an error code will be returned informing you of the fault.
Once the beta testing phase has ended, Wapple Architect will be launched with various pricing and usage plans to suit all needs.
The method that you use will largely depend upon your particular requirements but thankfully each method is fairly interchangeable.
For a quick overview and diagrams of how the WAPL architecture works, please see the WAPL overview.
As a fresh application
You don't need an existing application to utilise WAPL, especially if your product is aimed at just a mobile audience.
If you have any experience with HTML pages you'll be able to design and build pages in no time at all. If you have written pages using server side scripting such as PHP or ASP then you'll be able to write dynamic sites just as fast.
WAPL as an MVC view component
WAPL can be used as a 'View' component of an existing 'Model, View, Controller' (MVC) application.
If you take this approach, your 'Model' (data) and 'Controller' (logic) remain largely unchanged. Your application will do what it always did but by utilising a WAPL 'View' component, your application will be available on all mobile-internet devices. And it will look perfect every time.
Communicating with WAPL
Of course you don't need an MVC framework to use WAPL, you can use any of the webservice methods to firstly determine whether a visitor is on a mobile handset and secondly to turn your WAPL into valid markup.
Using WAPL is extremely easy and only requires that you pass valid WAPL to Wapple's servers using the SOAP or REST webservices. The webservice server responds with the markup for you to output to the device. You have complete control over content, design and presentational elements.
The WAPL Process
1. Send the device's headers to the Wapple webservice using REST or SOAP, to test if the visiting device is a mobile device. In PHP, this is done with the $_SERVER variable.
2. Wapple webservices responds true or false.
3. If the device is a mobile, generate your WAPL. If not, continue as if a web browser and output HTML / XHTML generated by your own application.
4. Send WAPL to the Wapple webservice and receive perfect optimised markup for the device.
5. Output this markup to the device.
Usage
To ensure optimal performance during the beta testing phase, several restrictions have been put in place. Your dev key is restricted to the domain you supply when registering, and you are also restricted to 500 API requests every 24 hours to our servers. Once this limit has been reached, an error code will be returned informing you of the fault.
Once the beta testing phase has ended, Wapple Architect will be launched with various pricing and usage plans to suit all needs.
Contents
- 1. Introducing WAPL
- 2. How it works
- 3. Getting Started
- 4. Developing with WAPL
- 5. More Code Examples
- 6. Common Tasks