The foundation of Mobile Channels rests upon two key technologies: CDF and Active Server Pages (ASP) scripting. Mobile Channels has developed a streamlined and optimized subset of functionality that allows devices to work with limited storage space over the narrow bandwidth of Windows CE connectivity. For information on client-side scripting in a mobile channel, see Mobile Channels Scripting Environment.
There are two ways to construct a mobile channel. In the first approach, a group of standard HTML pages are connected by hyperlinks. This approach is sufficient for small page sets that do not have repetitive data. The CDF file serves primarily as an inventory of files to be brought over to the device. This non-scripted, page-group approach may be desirable when the page set consists of few pages with highly dissimilar content, and when the content is static and does not need to be incrementally updated.
In the second approach, more complex page sets are organized with the help of a scripting language to build pages "on the fly." This is more desirable when the page set consists of:
The design rules are simple and familiar for the first method of constructing a mobile channel. The documentation for IE4 channels describes how to create channels of this type. Scripted channels operate on principles similar to any dynamic Web site, and because scripted channels provide the most flexibility, this chapter discusses them in detail. Be aware that all Windows CE-based devices have a limited HTML control that does not support frames or dynamic HTML.