Wireless Application Protocol

Collect! ships with a simple demonstration of logging into the Collect! Web Host with a WAP enabled cellular phone for those locales where WAP is still in use.

The demonstration system offers a simple menu when a guest first views the system via the guest\index.wml file. They can then sign on. They will be prompted for a User ID and Password. They are then presented with the user\index.wml file which allows loading of a Work In Progress (WIP) List and searching by Name, Phone and File Number.

The WIP list may be sorted by priority into low, mid, high and all priorities.

Low - priorities 0 to 30

Mid - priorities 31 to 60

High - priorities 61 to 99

All - displays all contacts

Selecting a contact will display contact details, including any attachment file, such as email or comments.

You can then drill down into the Debtor record. The Debtor shows File Number, Name, Contact, Phone Numbers and Email address.

You can drill down to see:

Details - financial summary and important dates

Events - recent contact events

Financials - recent transaction history

Cosigner/ Others - related parties

Notes - the most recent notes entries

This is a very simple example. Much more can be done, but this demonstration gives you a good basic idea of the capabilities.

How WAP Works With The Web Host

The Web Host detects requests from the Internet. Web Host tests the HTTP header of the host requesting data. If the header reflects any *.paw file capability, it switches this web connection to WAP mode. Instead of returning index.html, we will instead return index.wml. The index.wml file is a special simplified XHTML file designed for WAP devices.

The index.wml file presents choices to the user. In some cases, the user can trigger reports that output other *.WML files that are returned to the user. These files may contain a WIP List or a list of matching accounts, or account details.

The WAP reports are quite simple and can be modified by you just as the index pages can.

Notes

1. We do not encrypt data or use SSL or similar methods with WAP connections yet.

2. WML is a form of XML and is extremely picky. One character out of place and it can refuse to display.

3. This has not been tested over many different phone types. If you have any questions or comments about this code please contact fritz@collect.org.

Technical Notes

The WAP functionality has already been implemented in Collect! The following details are included here in case you wish to implement or update this feature in an existing database.

1. WAP works with several reports and XML files. For your convenience these files are shipped with Collect! in a wap.zip file. You can find this file in the root of your Collect! application or request it from support@collectsoftware.cc.

2. Unzip the wap.zip file into a folder.

3. To use the demonstration files please do the following:

a. Sign into the Web Host and import the WAP reports.

If you are updating an existing version of WAP, please delete all current paw reports before importing the new ones.

b. Copy the guest index.wml file into the html\guest folder, or replace the existing one if this is a WAP update.

c. Copy the user\index.wml file into the html\ user level folders you want to have access via phone, or replace the existing ones if this is a WAP update.

See Also

Please visit www.w3schools.org for more information on WAP and WML.

See Also

- Web Host Topics
- SSL Keys And Certs