It seems to me that newer phones like iPhones with large displays and full-fledged browsers don't need vpfree2.com/mobile, because they can display full web pages and therefore can just use the regular vpfree2.com site. IMO, the main purpose of a shorter vpfree2.mobi or vpfree2.com/mobile website is for older and smaller displays and/or limited bandwidth, like on the Razr.
According to some phone websites, the browser in a Razr is apparently the "Motorola Information Browser WAP 2.0". There are almost no settings for it, either while in the browser or in the phone settings, and I see no way to turn wrapping on or off.
It does have the ability to set up a "Browser Session"; the only defined session supplied on my phone is "Media Net" (I have AT&T). The "Media Net" session settings have "Service Type 1" set to HTML (I found this out by copying it to a new entry). When setting up a new session, you can choose between WAP (Secure/Connectionless/None) or HTTP (Secure/none). I tried setting up a new HTML session that launches directly to vpfree2.com/mobile, but it behaves the same, i.e. no wrapping. Setting it to WAP results in "Server not available".
The browser window shows a vertical scrollbar, but not a horizontal scrollbar. This seems very odd. If I go to Media Net Home, text does wrap, but each section is enclosed in a little box, which may in fact force the wrapping. More likely, they are serving the page as XHTML MP. Per the Wikipedia page on WAP 2.0, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Application_Protocol:
"XHTML Mobile Profile (XHTML MP), the markup language defined in WAP 2.0, is made to work in mobile devices. It is a subset of XHTML and a superset of XHTML Basic. A version of cascading style sheets (CSS) called WAP CSS is supported by XHTML MP."
So it's clear that you need to serve the page as XHTML MP for it to work on WAP 2.0 browsers, and to use WAP CSS for the stylesheets. Per the Wikipedia XHTML MP page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML_Mobile_Profile, the DOCTYPE must specify a version of xhtml-mobile, rather than xhtml1-transitional, which is what's currently used. I wonder if just that change alone might be enough to make the site work on a WAP 2.0 browser? Of course it would be best to do whatever else is needed, such as the stylesheets. The MIME type used to serve the page is usually important too: "The MIME type for XHTML Mobile Profile is 'application/vnd.wap.xhtml+xml'."
Developershome.com has tutorials on both XHTML MP http://www.developershome.com/wap/xhtmlmp/ and WAP CSS http://www.developershome.com/wap/wcss/.
Hope all of this helps. I'd be happy to test the site any time if you make any changes.
JD
----- Original Message ----
> From: "vpfree2@ymail.com" <vpfree2@ymail.com>
> To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 9:57:30 AM
> Subject: [vpFREE] Re: XVP - vpfree2.com mobile issues/feedback
>
> Yes.. great discussion & very helpful.
>
> A few quick comments (warning: somewhat technical)
>
> 1. I don't have access to a RAZR or an emulator for it, so I'm not able to
> directly test the site for that phone
>
> 2. It's impossible for us to support all mobile phones. There are many
> hundreds of phone-specific issues. There are companies that do this (that is,
> whose business is to handle all those phone-specific issues for people like us),
> but we can't afford to pay them!
>
> 3. New phones generally support either html browsing (via a built-in browser) or
> a downloaded one (like opera mini)-- and some now support javascript, so the
> main (non-mobile site) might even work fine for them. Old phones use "WAP" (or
> "WML") which, while it has it advantages, is being phased out in favor of real
> html. At the moment, our mobile site does NOT properly support older-style WAP
> phones... and I'd bet the RAZR John has is a WAP phone (*** does anyone know
> ?).
>
> 3. On launch we decided to support only "new" phones with browsers, such as
> iphones, windows mobile, blackberries, etc. It's on my list to roll out proper
> WAP support (for older phones)-- but even when the vpfree2 WAP service is
> available, its not clear it will work on any particular phone such as the RAZR
> (or a particular version of it). If there are folks out there with "old" WAP
> phones who desire mobile access, please send us a note (via the vpfree2 site).
> We'll need you to help test anything we develop.
>
> Thanks...
>
>
> --- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Cielaszyk wrote:
> >
> > Good posting.
> >
> > I have a Dell AXIM X30 pocket pc and the text lines do wrap around. I'm
> > using Windows mobile 2003 SE. There is an option for "one column"
> > display which I have turned on.
> >
> > Are there display options available on your phone?
> >
> > Dennis
> > vp-connoisseur
> >
------------------------------------
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