Create your own Windows CE Mobile Channel (Page 6)

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Create your own Windows CE Mobile Channel (continued)


<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

Next, there's a table with a logo in it. Note the reference to the logo's ID name and not the file name:


<table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr>

<td align=center><img src="mctp://cpchannel/logo";>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

I'm not going to go into detail on the HTML table syntax (the TR, TD, and TABLE tags). You can find more information on these in just about any modern HTML reference.

I've centered the title of the page, and I prefer to put all the core elements of the page in a table. This helps guarantee the page looks good on both a Mobile Channel viewer on a Palm-sized PC and also on a Handheld PC. I've set the width to 99% with no table border to maximize the amount of space on the screen that's available for my content:


<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td>

<center><h3>Palm-sized PC Hardware</h3></center>

</td></tr>

</table>

Note that I've put the heading in a table to keep it centered properly on the page.

The use of MCTP (Mobile Channel Transport Protocol) ensures that you can browse the contents of the channel when not physically connected to the Internet. Every MCTP call is passed to a script interpreter that finds the relevant information, such as the name of the page. That is then processed into HTML and displayed by the channel browser. This information is held in a cache so it's a very quick process.

Coding the navigator
This next section of code is my navigator. This standard set of code provides a way for users of my channel to jump around to any page in the channel. I've chosen to highlight the current page in the bold tag to avoid visitors getting confused as to what page they're on.

Next, I'm going to put a horizontal line across the page and include the links to the other pages.

With screen size so restricted, I'm using the break tag and you'll notice some differences with how links work. I've included the links themselves in brackets to differentiate them from regular text.

Here's how a link will work. The following sequence will display on the screen as the phrase "Mobile Channels". But when it's tapped, it will look in the CDF file using the specifier "mctp://cpchannel"; (the name of my channel) for the ID called CP-CHANNELS and display that page. Let's take a look at that line:


 <a href="mctp://cpchannel/CP-CHANNELS";>Mobile Channels</a>

Now let's look at the HTML for all the navigator links:


<hr>

<center>

<BR>

[ <a href="mctp://cpchannel/CP-CHANNELS";>Mobile Channels</a> ]

[ <a href="mctp://cpchannel/CP-SWARE";>Software Review</a> ]

[ <a href="mctp://cpchannel/CP-INDEX";>Index </a> ]

<BR>

[ <B>Hardware Pages</B> ]

[ <a href="mctp://cpchannel/CP-NEWS";>News Page</a> ]

[ <a href="mctp://cpchannel/CP-ABOUT";>About Craig</a> ]

[ <a href="mctp://cpchannel/CP-BEST";>Best of </a> ]

</center>

<BR>

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