WAP 1.0 to WAP 2.0 Conversion

WAP 2.0, sites can be coded in xHTML. Though WML (which was used for WAP 1.0) is really simple, it was difficult to do any kind of text formatting or graphics with it. However, if you already have an existing product in WML, you may want to re-code it in xHTML. xHTML also has a version for mobile devices called xHTML MP.

WAP 2.0 is backward compatible to WML 1.x, which means WAP 2.0 mobile devices can display WML 1.x documents. If there is a WML feature that is necessary for your product/service but is not available in xHTML MP, you can consider developing your WAP application with WML 1.x. (or using a combination of WML 1.x and XHTML MP?).

Apart from the mark up language changing from wml to xHTML, the transmission protocol also changes from WAP to wTCP/IP (Wireless profiled TCP). This essentially means that we can have greater convergence between mobile and fixed domains and a greater level of security.

The main advantage of using xHTML over wml is that we can separate functionality and content from the display, so your main code is separate from your style sheets. Just like it is on the internet! The good thing is that you have to only change the style sheets when your application is not being properly displayed on any of the different phone browsers.