developing web apps for mobile devices

[fater]

Hi,
I'd like to know if it's possible in Java develop a web application wich recognizes the mobile device (PDA, smartphone, simple cellular phone) and provides the correct interface to a DB trough the internal device's internet browser. Tkanks. Best regards. Fabio

[Eight888]

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you want to achieve here.

Do you want to write a Java app (midlet) with a connection to a database? Or do you want to write a WAP/internet site (in Java Server Pages?) which has a connection to a database?

Regards,

8

[Eight888]

To be honest, your only really option is a WAP/WML based frontend with the database connectivity provided by a backend service (ASP, JSP, Perl, PHP whatever).

The big advantage here is compatibility (works with any wap phone) and writing the server side scripts will be pretty easy.

J2ME midlets could be bit of a headache to build really and would limit the number of phones/devices your system would work with.

If I was you, I'd concentrate now on the first option and if necessary, do a little research on the backend scripting method you want to use.

If there's anything else I can help with - feel free to let me know.

E

[fater]

Thank you very much for the answer. I'm very oriented to the WAP approach, in fact I've downloaded the Mobile Zoo example, and it really fits my needs (except for the DB technology ;-) ).
I want to know if there's a forum about WAP more populated than this one, because the discussion may take several days to get an answer. Thank you again. Fabio