Top-level Channel URL

You use the path to the CDF in two attributes of the top-level CHANNEL element. The HREF attribute references the CDF path using the Mobile Channels Transport Protocol (MCTP). The SELF attribute references the CDF path using the standard HTTP prefix. Unlike the IE4 implementation, the SELF attribute is a required attribute of the top-level CHANNEL element.

The HREF attribute uses the MCTP prefix to indicate the CDF file as a mobile channel. This causes special processing when referenced under IE4 where the mobile channel is registered for synchronization to the Windows CE-based device. Unlike the HREF under IE4, in a mobile channel, the URL does not directly indicate the page to render. Rather, it references the top-level channel as specified by the CDF file. The appropriate CHANSCRIPT tag determines what script is used to render the top-level of the channel. For a detailed description of CHANSCRIPT, see CDF Tags for Mobile Channels.

The BASE attribute has the same functionality for Mobile Channels as it does for Active Channels in IE4. The following code example illustrates that the attribute's URL is an HTTP URL.

<CHANNEL HREF="mctp://www.microsoft.com/test.cdf" ID="test" 
 BASE = "http://www.microsoft.com/test/"
 SELF = "http://www.microsoft.com/test.cdf" />
    <ITEM HREF="START.MCS" ID="Start"/>
    <CHANSCRIPT VALUE="Start"/>
    ...
</CHANNEL>

In this code example, the CHANSCRIPT tag is used to specify the starting page or script by referencing the ID tag of the script that is defined in the ITEM tag. The START.MCS file is a Mobile Channels script that defines how to display the top-most page of the channel.

In the mobile channel CDF file, the HREF for the CHANNEL tag is the only one that has an MCTP-style URL. All other HREF values are of the HTTP-style.