ASP.NET Mobile Support Toolkit
Posted August 16, 2002
Chat Date: July 11, 2002
Chat Participants:
- Susan Chory, Lead Program Manager
- Andres Sanabria, Program Manager
- John Perry, Program Manager for Communities for ASP.NET
Host MS_John_P
Hi everyone - Today's chat will be on the ASP.NET Mobile Toolkit.
Host MS_John_P
I'll let our Hosts introduce themselves:
Host Guest_Joe_MS
Hi, I am a Program Manager on the ASP.NET team. I have focused on web development and in particular mobile web development for the past few years. During the creation of MMIT I worked on the mobile controls runtime.
Host Guest_Susan_MS
Hi, I am a Lead Program Manager on the ASP.NET team who was worked on the Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit since its creation in March 2000.
Host Guest_AndresS
Hi, I am a program manager, working on the ASP.NET team. I have been working on mobile/MMIT for the last 2 years
Host MS_John_P
and I'm John Perry, Program Manager for Communities for ASP.NET.
Host MS_John_P
And we're ready for some questions.
Host Guest_Susan_MS
Have any of you used the toolkit before?
Host MS_John_P
Q: martin : I am interested in whether or not the current toolset can support the 2.5G or 3G system that sprint is planning to bring online this summer?
Host Guest_AndresS
A: The toolkit is network independent, what the toolkit needs or required is a browser which could be using any type of network, such as GSM, 2.5g .
Host MS_John_P
Q: martin : No - but I have been using J2ME to develop some apps
Host Guest_Susan_MS
A: Good to hear you have been building with the toolkit. The toolkit enables you to build mobile web applications and only requires a client side browser. J2ME applications are client side applications that require J2ME on the client.
Host MS_John_P
Q: durayakar : Does the ASP.NET Mobile Toolkit has anything to do with the mobile communication platform (like GPRS)? I hope not
Host Guest_AndresS
A: The toolkit is a server side technology that enable developer to create mobile web application; the application could be access by any supported mobile web browser.
Host MS_John_P
Q: Anil : Is the next version of MMIT going to be integrated with the framework, so that it is not a separate download?
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: Going forward we are working to provide closer integration between the toolkit and the rest of the frameworks.
Host MS_John_P
Q: basek : Since I don't own any mobile devices, what emulators do you suggest I test/develop with to get the most out of the MMIT?
Host Guest_AndresS
A: We suggest using the Microsoft emulator, we have one for the Pocket PC and another for a cell phone (Mobile explorer). In addition you could use any of the supported emulators.
Host MS_John_P
Q: JDKronicz : What does "mobile" refer to? Things like Palm Pilots?
Host Guest_Susan_MS
A: The toolkit uses mobile to refer to web enabled cell phones, pagers and PDAs (including Pocket PC, Palm, Handspring, Visor, etc). You can find the complete list of supported devices on www.asp.net
Host MS_John_P
Q: Anil : Are there any tools available that will allow one to measure the # of bytes that are coming down the wire in development?
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: Some emulators will provide a byte count, in particular the Openwave emulator provides this information. You could also use network monitor to measure what is sent across the wire.
Host Guest_Susan_MS
Has anybody used customization to change the UI for a particular device? What device did you customize for?
Host MS_John_P
Q: basek : Does the MMIT facilitate or provide any controls for signiture captures? Would this even be possible? (specific for Pocket PC devices)
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: There is not a standard mobile control for capturing signatures. Since you can build your own custom controls, it is possible to write a special browser based control that could render on PocketIE.
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: better option for this is probably a client based app built on the .NET Compact Framework.
Host MS_John_P
Q: Anil : Yes. Customized the UI to make it look a bit nicer for HTML enabled devices.
Host Guest_Susan_MS
A: That's great -- If you haven't tried customization -- you might want to check it out. You can do it using the DeviceSpecific construct or using propertyoverides on a control and accessing the mobile capabilties object.
Host MS_John_P
Q: Anil : Do you have any plans to release any end-to-end mobile apps that demonstrate some of the best practices that should be followed in developing with MMIT?
Host Guest_AndresS
A: Currently we have extended IBUYSPY as best practice application https://www.ibuyspy.com, for future release check https://www.asp.net .
Host Guest_AndresS
A: Anil: Is there any specific application that you would like to see ?
Host MS_John_P
For those of you just joining us, we're discussing the ASP.NET Mobile Toolkit - feel free to ask your questions below.
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: An example of a custom control is the Dynamic Image control on www.asp.net The dynamic image control automatically converts images to the appropriate size and format for the requesting device.
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: The code is provided with the control to help show how to build your own control through inheritance.
Host Guest_AndresS
That is a great idea... !!!
Host MS_John_P
Q: Anil : Andres, More from the perspective of something that actually has some business logic / security / live content updates etc.
Host Guest_AndresS
Thanks Anail
Host MS_John_P
Q: Rick : I've used customization to change the background for HTML and the paging size depending on the device (phone or HTML). Works fine!
Host Guest_Susan_MS
Just out of curiousity what color did you change the background to?
Host MS_John_P
Q: Glen_OReilly : I understand that I can manually add new browser/device specifications. Is there an repository of new browsers/devices available that can be plugged in?
Host MS_John_P
A: Rick : #80FFFF - for the IPAQ
Host Guest_Susan_MS
A: Thanks for the color info.
Host Guest_AndresS
A: We are working on releasing update to the current set of tested devices. Those updates are call Device Update and could be found on MSDN or ASP.NET site. If you want to get latest one please visit :https://www.asp.net/download.aspx?tabindex=6
Host MS_John_P
Q: Glen_OReilly : I understand that I can manually add new browser/device specifications. Is there an repository of new browsers/devices available that can be plugged in?
Host MS_John_P
(sorry, a little backwards, there....)
Host MS_John_P
Great questions,lets keep them coming!!!
Host Guest_Susan_MS
Any devices in particular you are looking for the toolkit to support?
Host MS_John_P
Q: roxio : Is there any support in ASP.NET for languages other than English ? And another question - Does it depends on particular device ?
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: MMIT & ASP.NET are fully globalized so each can be used to build applications targeted at a wide range of languages. In addition MMIT has been localized to Japanese, so the runtime UI can render default text in Japanese.
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: You can control the request & response encoding for your mobile web application. If you decide to write your application using an alternate encoding, you will need to make sure that your target devices can handle it appropriately.
Host MS_John_P
Q: Glen_OReilly : Are there any limitations by using the ASP.NET Web Matrix with MMIT?
Host Guest_Susan_MS
A: No mobile specific issues with Web Matrix -- feel free to give it a try.
Host MS_John_P
Q: Anil : Any plans to provide some sort of a test site which we can browse with a new mobile device, which can in turn display the capabilities of that device so that we can build a custom profile for it (If you do not support it out of the box in a device update?
Host Guest_AndresS
A: we do not have such tool today but we are thinking about it for future releases.
Host Guest_AndresS
Anil: How important would that be for you?
Host MS_John_P
Q: roxio : OK, does this handling must depend also on settings in Mobile Information Server?
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: Mobile Information Server is an optional component which can be used to provide firewall security on top of MMIT mobile web applications. It should not interfere with the encoding you chose in your mobile app.
Host MS_John_P
A: Rick : Here is some code I use to test browser info:
Rick : ' Collect user information bCap = Request.Browser sUtil = "User: " & strUserName & "<br>" _ & "Logged in at: " & Now & "<br>" _ & "Browser: " & bCap.Browser & " " _ & bCap.MajorVersion & "." &
Host Guest_AndresS
A: The mobilecapabilite class is good to be use if the device is recognized, but in Anil's scenarios it is a new/unrecognized device so no information will not be available.
Host MS_John_P
Q: Anil : Andres, I was actually thinking about it in terms of easing some of the burden on you folks. Majority of the mobile apps that I personally would deploy would be targetted at either the PocketPC platform or a known supported WAP browser.
Host Guest_Susan_MS
A: Anil, I thought your request a website for you to use to test new browsers. Internally we have sites that we use to evaluate new devices supported by the toolkit.
Host MS_John_P
For anyone just joining us, we're discussing the ASP.NET Mobile Toolkit.
Host MS_John_P
Feel free to post questions below!!!
Host MS_John_P
Or, comments, experiences, feature requests......
Host MS_John_P
Q: Anil : Susan, the website would be benefit if I was deploying a corporate application and the mobile device was something new, and compelling enough that I had to use it (and you did not support it out of the box).
Host Guest_Susan_MS
A: We will look into providing some type of solution for that scenario.
Host MS_John_P
Q: roxio : And also Outlook Mobile Access, an application that is included with MIS, provides one example of how this works (for example)
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: Yes, MIS contains Outlook Mobile Access and the ability to authenticate users so they can access intranet based web applications. Once they are authenticated, they can access mobile web applications build using MMIT.
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: So in terms of accessing secure enterprise data you would use both MIS and MMIT.
Host MS_John_P
Q: Anil : I realize that I am thinking ahead at this point, but in future releases, have you thought about integrating both the asp.net web form controls and the Mobile web form controls into one (so that you could toggle between them with device="mobile|desktop"
Host Guest_AndresS
A: That is a great feedback; We are thinking about it.
Host MS_John_P
We'll be wrapping this up in a few minutes...so post any last questions you might have.....
Host MS_John_P
Q: roxio : OK, but may be MIS is targeted to Outlook Mobile Access, isn't ? Maybe I am wrong?
Host Guest_Joe_MS
A: MIS contains two key components. 1) Outlook Mobile Access and 2) a proxy for mobile devices to hit your intranet. Going forward the mobile proxy component is going to be part of ISA.
Host MS_John_P
Thanks Everyone - this was a great chat.....
Host MS_John_P
The trasncripts will be available online here in a short while!!!!!
Host Guest_Susan_MS
Thanks for the chat.
Host Guest_AndresS
Please keep in contact by visiting www.asp.net or by visiting our newsgroup .. thanks !!! and look forward to see AWSOME mmit applications
Host Guest_Joe_MS
Remember to visit www.asp.net where you will find more info on mobile development & post questions
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