Apache in a Wireless World Page 3

#WML/WAP types
AddType text/vnd.wap.wml .wml
AddType application/vnd.wap.wmlc .wmlc
AddType text/vnd.wap.wmlscript .wmls
AddType application/vnd.wap.wmlscriptc .wmlsc
AddType image/vnd.wap.wbmp .wbmp

The basic WML file is delivered to the browser with MIME type text/vnd.wap.wml.

  In the statement above, we have told Apache to delivery this MIME type whenever the filename ends

  in the extension .wml. Similarly, appropriate MIME types are passed for

  other WML variants. The .wmlc files would be compressed WML files, while

  .wmls and .wmlsc represent WMLScript

  (a wireless scripting language) and compressed WMLScript, respectively. Furthermore,

  .wbmp files represent wireless bitmap files or WBMP, the graphic format

  that wireless devices support (as opposed to, for example, .gif or .jpg on desktop browsers).

Changes to the Apache httpd.conf file  take effect only when the server

  is launched, so the server must be restarted to save the

  above changes for the new MIME types to apply. Once done though, Apache is ready to

  go, and will happily deliver WML and related files to a wireless device.
Development Simulation

You might be thinking, configuring Apache to deliver WML sounds nice in theory,

  but how can we see it in action? Without a wireless phone, aren't we flying

  blind? 
  Fortunately, no. If you're doing any development at all in WML, and also

  want to test drive your Apache configuration in delivering WML pages, check

  out Phone.com's UP.SDK package, which includes the incredibly handy UP.Simulator.

  The Simulator ("UP" stands for "Unwired Planet") displays

  a virtual cell phone on your desktop, which you can use to connect to and browse

  any WML page over the Internet (using your normal land-based Internet connection).

The Simulator even includes alternate "skins", or templates for various

  models of phone, so you can see how WML pages will be rendered on the particular

  screen size of a certain vendor model. The UP.Simulator is, as Martha Stewart

  would say were she to prototype WML pages for wireless delivery,  "a good

  thing."