Web Proxy for RSS Reading

The web portal and standalone Java client approaches have their benefits. It is easy to manage feeds on the web portal, and it is more economical, in terms of mobile phone bandwidth, to have the server polling the blogs for updates. The standalone Java client, on the other hand, provides a better user interface (UI) on the phone, which is crucial for successful mobile applications.

Litefeeds (http://www.litefeeds.com/) is a new service that combines the benefits of the web portal and the Java client approaches. Litefeeds provides a web site where you can create an account and edit your RSS feeds. The web site polls the RSS sources and keeps its content up-to-date at all times. On the mobile phone, Litefeeds distributes a Java client program that retrieves information from the web site as needed, using a compressed data protocol. The Java client presents the information in an effective mobile UI.

J2ME-Based RSS Reader

You can also download and install third-party programs to aggregate and render RSS content on your phone. The mReader program, written by Mark Allanson, is a J2ME-based RSS reader that works on Nokia Series 40 and Series 60 devices. It is available for free download from http://markallanson.net/html/technical/j2me/mReader.htm. mReader parses RSS content as well as basic HTML-formatting tags embedded in the RSS stream.


Typing URLs for RSS feeds on a mobile phone keypad can be tedious work. mReader supports importing a list of RSS feeds from an Outline Processor Markup Language (OMPL) file. You can create an OPML file by exporting RSS feeds from most RSS aggregator/reader programs. You can also download fully categorized RSS feed listings in the OPML format from directory web sites such as http://www.w3os.nl/logos/opml/.

Read Blogs and RSS Feeds in Your Smartphone

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML-based content publishing format for syndicating news content from multiple web sites and information sources. Most news sites (e.g., cnn.com and sourceforge.net) and blog sites produce RSS feeds so that other sites and portals can aggregate their headlines.

Of course, RSS is not limited to aggregating web content across several web sites. Many blogging suites put the full text of blog posts, rather than just headlines and links, in the RSS feeds. In this case, you can read blog entries via RSS alone, without actually loading the HTML web site. In fact, many blog readers do just that. While many web browsers do not support RSS, some specialized tools, such as NetNewsWire for Mac OS X and Sharp-Reader for Windows, allow you to keep track of many RSS feeds and read them from a computer.

But how do you read RSS from a Nokia mobile phone? The Nokia default browser (i.e., the Services application) and other third-party browsers cannot parse and render RSS. In this hack, I'll discuss ways to read RSS on your phone.

How to add a phone book entry?

On your web site's Contact Us page, you probably want to provide an easy way for visitors to add your contact number into their Contacts list without quitting the browser. The Add Phone Book Entry WTAI URL allows you to do just that. The following link prompts a user to add the phone number +18001234567 as ABC Corp in their phone Contacts list :

        <6a7href="wtai://wp/ap;+18001234567;ABC Corp">
          Add our contact number
     77>

Adding a Contacts list entry from a web site

The complete syntax of the WTAI URL allows you to use a WML variable to capture the return status value of the operation. Table lists the possible return values.

wtai://wp/ap;[phone number];[contact name]![variable name]

Table The status codes after the Add Phone Book Entry operation

Status code	Description
0	Success
-1	Unspecified error
-100	The contact name parameter is too long or unacceptable
-101	The phone number is invalid
-102	The phone number is too long
-103	The phone entry cannot be written
-104	The phone book is full

The corresponding function in WMLScript is addPBEntry:

var flag = WTAPublic.addPBEntry ("+18001234567", "ABC Corp");

So far, I have covered the WTAI public library URLs and functions, which all Nokia devices support. Some phones might support extended WTAI libraries, which provide functions for call management, SMS texting, and more Contacts list operations. You need to check your phone manual and the Forum Nokia web site (http://forum.nokia.com) to find out exactly what WTAI calls are supported on your device.

How to send DMTF tone?

During an active voice call, if you click the following link, the phone will send touch tones (a.k.a. DTMF tones) for the keys 1#23*456 over the voice line:

          Send tone

This can be very useful for interacting with automated answering services, which ask you to press keys to navigate menus. You can also capture the return status of the operation in a WML variable. The following is the complete syntax of the "send DTMF" URL link.

         wtai://wp/sd;[tone sequence]![variable name]

Table. The status codes after the "send DTMF" operation

Status code	Description
0	Success
-1	Unspecified error
-108	There is no active voice connection

The corresponding WMLScript function for sending DTMF tones is as follows:

     var flag = WTAPublic.sendDTMF ("1#23*456");