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Newsletters
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Notes on PQA-Compliant HTML
It is important to note that HTML 3.2 in its
entirety is not supported, only a subset. Keeping in mind the small screen size and slower download speeds for the Palm VII organizer, it is advisable
to simply create the very simplest HTML you can to avoid any potential problems...as in pre-1995, Mosaic 1.0 HTML. Your users are probably looking for quick
and easy access to information, not an elegant artistic design (no Shockwave Flash for the Palm VII!). Among the HTML 3.2 features not supported
by PQAs are:
- Named typefaces
- Style sheets
- Image maps
- Frames
- Frames
- Nested tables
- Scripts and applets
- Cookies
Given a screen size of 153 x 144, it's fairly obvious why the features listed above are not supported. It's refreshing in a way to build such
simple HTML pages after all the layers of complexity added on over the years! To sum up, sticking with the basics and building simple, small pages works
best in this format.
Palm Computing specifies three special META tags that should be used in all PQA and Web Clipping documents.
PalmComputingPlatform - This tag specifies that the pages were specifically designed for the Palm platform. Setting this value to "true"
ensures that images will be included. Leaving this tag out results in all pages being truncated to 1K with all images being removed.
<meta name="palmcomputingplatform" content="true">
HistoryListText - This tag specifies the text to be displayed in the History List maintained by the PQA browser. Optionally including
the &date and &time variables will also include the date and time that the Web clipping was retrieved.
<meta name="historylisttext" content="Daily News - &date &time">
PalmLauncherRevision - This tag can be used by developers to specify the version of the PQA (for reference only).
<meta name="palmlauncherrevision" content="1.0">
Hyperlinking Rules To Follow
Because all Palm VII content is split into two portions (the PQA and the Web Clipping(s)), links must also designate where content is to be retrieved
from. There are three basic rules that specify how hyperlinking occurs.
1. When linking from one page/image to another within the PQA, simply specify the relative path. For instance: <IMG SRC="directory/image1.gif">
One consequence of this is that all documents included within a PQA must lie within a single directory tree.
2. When linking from a page within a PQA to a Web clipping, specify the standard URL. For instance: <a href="http://www.wirelessdevnet.com">Wireless Developer Network<a>
3. When linking from a Web clipping back to a document within a PQA, use the file URL. For instance: <a href="file:somepqa.pqa/pagename.html">
Building Forms
It is possible to build forms that interact with remote server scripts in order to perform database updates or generate reports. The standard input
types are supported (TEXT, SUBMIT, RADIO, SELECT, CHECKBOX, etc.) as well as two new ones: DATEPICKER and TIMEPICKER. The DatePicker input type
can be used to retrieve a date in YYYY-MM-DD format for submittal to a CGI script. Likewise, TimePicker can be used to retrieve the time in HH:MM
24-hour clock format. Two additional hidden input types are also defined that can be used to provide some very powerful customization functionality. These are
%ZIPCODE and %DEVICEID. Supplying a %ZIPCODE hidden input value will result in the zip code of the nearest base station being submitted with the form (according
to Palm documentation, this is usually within five to ten miles of the user). The %DEVICEID hidden input value can be used to determine whether
the query is coming from a valid Palm VII device.
Next: Conclusion
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