WAP Push Services

Hi

[question in basic]
i would like to know how to send a service message to a mobile.

[question in advanced]
i would like to know how to create a gateway to send a service message to mobile devices.

Thanx

what is wap push?

A WAP Push is basically a specially encoded message which includes a link to a WAP address. WAP Push is specified on top of WDP; as such, it can be delivered over any WDP-supported bearer, such as GPRS or SMS.

In this way, the WAP Push directs the end user to a WAP address where particular content may be stored ready for viewing or downloading to the handset. The address could be a simple page or multimedia content (e.g. polyphonic ring tone) or a Java application. Using WAP Push, one can make it easier for end users to discover and access new mobile services.

You need to have a WAP Push software in order to send a WAP Push message, there's an example WAP Push Gateway.

Why create your own gateway unless you have large budgets, lots of co-workers for brainstorming, network connectons and leased lines or gsm modems, time, more time and more money when there are loads out there that exist already that you can plug into? Google is a friend, seek and find.

A WAP Push comes in two kinds, SI (service indication) and SL (service loader) the latter is not so well supported on Nokia handsets and most other manufacturers who have half an ounce of decency as it will auto load the link sent, the SI just sends an indication to the handset to say 'Hey check out this WAP link'

Service loading w/p can too easily be used to screw random people over, imagine a premium sms service that can be opted into by a WAP site with hidden params in the query string, a SL push could be sent, the subscriber could opt into to something without even knowing so it's a bit out of bounds in that way..... I get enough dodgy WAP push messages sent to me by spammers that I can access to get ripped off. Widespread SL would be a con-artist's or data-munger's best friend.

Push SI is the way to go and there's dozens of good gateways out there to plug into. Why develop your own at time and expense when there's better ones out there already for a reasonable fee?

SL doesn't work on many phones, e.g. Sony Ericsson. Many gateways use bulk SMS, which is often banned or filtered by local carriers.

esp. in the us where they seem to block anything from outide the us.

You don't need to create a gateway to send SMS or WAP Pushes to a mobile phone. You can use an aggregator to send the message. Using a aggregator is nice as you post them some XML and they send the message to what ever the local mobile networks are and then the message gets delivered. You also get better feed back on why a message may have fail through an aggregator (personal opinion). Two aggregators I've used in the UK are WIN (www.winplc.com) and Essendex. You can also send bulk SMS through an aggregator, one of the clients of the company I work for regularly sends out 10-20,000 messages.

Now going through an aggregator provides two possible ways to do a WAP push (depending on the aggregator). The first approach is where you need to encode the message in to hex code and pass it on inside the XML. A nice tutorial/ sample code to use can be found at http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/wappush.asp, this is what I've used. The second way is the aggregator may have a way for you to pass the information to them and they would do the encoding for you. Either way the user gets a WAP push that has a link in it.

Hope this is of some help, I know it doesn't answer your question about setting up a gateway. Try looking at forum.nokia.com as Nokia has some nice tools you can download for free and I think one of them is a gateway.