
The Most Exciting Mobile Community on the Planet
Download Latest WURFL
Last Updated: November 12, 2009
What's a Patch File?
Web Patch(recognize web browsers)
TRAC: report bugs/CRs
Using TRAC to report
bugs and requests changes
WURFL API (Java, PHP, .Net)
WNG
WALL (new retrofitted WALL lib)
Documentation
!!! Capabilities !!!
Video Testing
About WURFL
What's the WURFL?
What can the WURFL do for me?
What's so smart about the WURFL?
WURFL and UAProf
Voices from the Net
WURFL Pronunciation
FAQ
Contributions & Attributions
WURFL-based apps
WURFL Endorsements
WALL-based apps
License
Get Involved!
Contribute Device Info
WURFL Utilities
Utilities,
uaprofile2wurfl.pl,
Alembik,
mDevInf,
Thumbnails,
Wallify,
Image Server,
Tera-WURFL,
GAIA Trascoder,
Mobile Web Toolkit,
PHP Image Rendering Library,
PHP Image Rendering Library (II),
FastWurfl,
Apache Mobile Filter
Credits
Luca Passani
Old APIs
(too be deprecated and removed)
Old Java API and WALL
Perl
Ruby
Python
XSLT Tools
C++ tools


Crowdsourced Mobile Application Testing
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What's the WURFL?
by Luca Passani
passani at eunet dot no
WURFL = Wireless Universal Resource File
The WURFL is an "ambitious" configuration file that
contains info about all known Wireless devices
on earth. Of course, new devices are created and released
at all times. While this configuration file is bound to be out
of date one day after each update, chances are that the WURFL lists
all of the WAP devices you can purchase in the nearest shops.
If you have browsed this site this far, you are probably looking for answers
to the following questions:
- Why do WAP developers need a resource file like the WURFL?
- Why isn't someone providing WURFL like functionality for money?
- How do I use the WURFL?
- Which features of which phone are listed in the WURFL?
- Who endorses and supports the WURFL?
- ...and probably more.
If you read on, you will find answers.
WAP and the Need for Resource Files
The WAP standard was a great idea. All the major players in the
mobile telephony industry got together in 98 and created a consortium
(WAP Forum, now OMA) to establish a worldwide standard called WAP,
Wireless Application Protocol.
While the protocol is supported by all device manufacturers and
network operators, in practice phone and browser manufacturer have been
eager to differentiate while abiding by the letter of the specs.
The consequence of this is a plethora of devices which makes it real
hard for developers to build WAP and Wireless services which work
acceptably well for the owners of those devices.
The message from the WAP Forum is to wait for implementations
to converge and deliver developers from the problem.
Thank you, honey...but we can't wait. As developers, we need solutions,
we need them quick, we need them good and, sometimes, we need them
cheap too!
What developers need are means to:
- programmatically abstract away devices differences
- avoid that we need to modify applications whenever a new device ships
- avoid that we need to track new devices that ship (particularly
those in uninteresting markets)
the WURFL is the starting point to fix all of that. You can think of the
WURFL as a global database of all devices and their capabilities.
Of course, the wurfl is not all that there is to it.
What you also need is a way to efficiently read the info from the database
and use it in your applications to dynamically customize your apps
for families of devices.
For this reason, this project is on the lookout for programmers who
can provide new smart utilities that exploit the WURFL and
for porting existing utilities to different platforms.
So what can the WURFL do for me? >>
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