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Building Applications With WML
WML was designed for low-bandwidth, small-display devices. As part of this design, the concept of a deck of cards was utilized. A single WML document (i.e. the elements contained within the <wml> document element) is known as a deck. A single interaction between a user agent and a user is known as a card. The beauty of this design is that multiple screens can be downloaded to the client in a single retrieval. Using WMLScript, user selections or entries can be handled and routed to already loaded cards, thereby eliminating excessive transactions with remote servers. Of course, with limited client capabilities comes another tradeoff. Depending on your client’s memory capabilities, it may be necessary to split multiple cards up into multiple decks to prevent a single deck from becoming too large.
Using Variables
Because multiple cards can be contained within one deck, some mechanism needs to be in place to hold data as the user traverses from card to card. This mechanism is provided via WML variables. Variables can be created and set using several different methods. For instance:
Although we haven’t discussed WMLScript yet, it is important to note that WML and WMLScript within a document share the same variables.
Next: Creating A WML Deck
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