Make your Site PDA-Friendly

Using Forms

Any Website worth the cyberspace it occupies has some interactivity via forms. AvantGo and PDAs can handle just about any kind of form. Be sure to keep in mind screen size and the HTML limitations mentioned previously.

The form that your user fills out and submits on the PDA is saved in the Forms Manager. The next time the user syncs to your channel, AvantGo sends the completed form to your server where it is processed as usual by your form's cgi-bin or other action.

The only major change you need to make to the form is to customize the Submit button with a little JavaScript. Replace the standard:

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">

with:

<input type="button" name="submit" value="Submit"
onClick=\"document.forms[0].submitNoResponse(
'This is the message that will be displayed after form
submission',
false,
true);
back()">

The submitNoResponse function is AvantGo's way of displaying a confirmation message to the user, and of specifying whether the form is hidden in the Forms Manager (in this example, "false") and whether multiple forms can be submitted ("true").

A powerful AvantGo feature is channel personalization with forms and cookies. For more information, visit this article.

Create Your AvantGo Channel

If you haven't already done this, sign up for a free AvantGo account. Next, use AvantGo's wizard to create your channel. You'll specify the location of your home page, link depth, and more. This should take all of five minutes.

When you're finished, click on "Export Channels" to generate the URL that you can copy and post on your site so that customers can sign up for your channel. The URL will look like this:

http://avantgo.com/mydevice/autoadd.html?title=WEBtheJOINT&url=ht
tp%3A%2F%2Fwww.webthejoint.com%2Favantgo%2Findex.php&max=100&dept
h=2&images=1&links=0&refresh=always&hours=1&dflags=127&hour=16&qu
arter=30&s=00

It ain't pretty, but it works like a charm. When you go to this URL, the channel will be added to your "My Channels" list. Sync up your PDA, then click the AvantGo icon on your PDA to test your handheld-friendly site.

If you're sans-PDA, don't worry. Download the Palm OS Emulator onto your Windows/Mac/Unix computer.

Alternative PDA Browser Solutions

AvantGo's not the only game in town, but it's way ahead of whatever's in second place.

Blazer

Palm browser that can access virtually any site on the Web, but strips out unsupported content (streaming media, Java, JavaScript). Unlike AvantGo, Blazer does not store content on the PDA.
Cost: US$19.95
http://www.handspring.com/software/blazer_overview.jhtml

Palmscape

Palm browser that can cache pages for offline viewing. No SSL support.
Cost: US$29.95
http://www.ilinx.co.jp/en/products/ps.html

Web Clippings

Stand-alone applications supported by Palm VII handhelds, Palm Vs with the OmniSky modem, and other handhelds with the Mobile Internet Kit installed.
http://www.palm.com/dev/tech/webclipping/.

What Are You Waiting For?

If you haven't already, sign up for a free AvantGo account. Subscribe to several channels, including the SitePoint channel - you'll quickly find some with elegant navigation and valuable content. Yours could be one of them. Give it a shot!