Introduction to .NET Mobile

Background

Cell phones (mobile telephones) have become part of our life style, and new mobile devices like the Palm Pilot, the Pocket PC, and the upcoming Auto PC is about to be added to the list.

One exciting thing about these new mobile devices is their ability to connect to the Internet and to execute web applications.

Mobile applications can now be developed to deliver any types of data to any user any place in the world.

Different mobile devices support different programming languages. Some support WAP and WML, some support HTML or a limited version of HTML, and some support both or a different language.

To support all types of mobile devices, developers must create one different application for each language.

With .NET Mobile, Microsoft has introduced a new platform for development of mobile applications.

This tutorial is about how to develop mobile applications with an extension to ASP.NET called the Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit (MMIT), or simply .NET Mobile.

.NET Mobile

.NET Mobile is an extension to Microsoft ASP.NET and the Microsoft's .NET Framework.

.NET mobile is a set of server-side Web Forms Controls to build applications for wireless mobile devices, like web phones and PDAs.

These controls produces the different output for different devices by generating WML 1.1, HTML 3.2, or compact HTML.

How Does It Work?

The following table shows how the .NET Mobile works:

• A web client requests a web page
• The request travels the Internet
• The request is received by IIS
• The request is handled by the .NET framewok
• The requested page is compiled by ASP.NET
• .NET Mobile handles any mobile device requirements
• The page is returned to the client

Software Requirements

To develop mobile applications with .NET Mobile, you must have the following components.

1. Windows 2000 Professional or Server with IIS 5
2. All Windows 2000 service packs
3. The ASP.NET framework
4. Microsoft Mobil Internet Toolkit (MMIT)
5. Internet Explorer 6.0 or 5.5
6. Your favorite WAP simulator.

You need Windows 2000 to develop .NET applications. You must also install all the Windows 2000 service packs.

IIS 5 (Internet Information Server) is a part of Windows 2000.

If you want to read more about how to install .NET go to our ASP.NET tutorial.

You also have to install MMIT (.NET Mobile) and a newer version of Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer and MMIT can be downloaded from Microsoft MSDN.

How To Start

Developing a mobile web application with ASP.NET is very easy:

1. Create an ASP.NET page
2. Include System.Mobile.UI
3. Add Mobile Controls to the page

See the details in the next chapter.

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