UAProf (User Agent Profile)

The UAProf (User Agent Profile) specification is concerned with capturing capability and preference information for wireless devices. This information can be used by content providers to produce content in an appropriate format for the specific device. It is an XML document that contains information about the user agent type and device capabilities. It is a standard defined and maintained by the Open Mobile Alliance.

UAProf is related to the Composite Capability/Preference Profiles Specification created by the World Wide Web Consortium.

UAProf files typically have the file extensions rdf or xml, and are usually served with mimetype application/xml. They are an XML-based file format. The RDF format means that the document schema is extensible. User agent profiles are stored in a server called the profile repository. Very often a profile repository is maintained by a mobile device manufacturer. For example, the user agent profiles describing the capabilities of Nokia cell phones are stored in a profile repository maintained by Nokia.

A UAProf file describes the capabilities of a mobile handset, including Vendor, Model, Screensize, Multimedia Capabilities, Character Set support, and more. Recent UAProfiles have also begun to include data conforming to MMS, PSS5 and PSS6 schemas, which includes much more detailed data about video, multimedia, streaming and MMS capabilities.

A mobile handset sends a header within an http request, containing the URL to its UAProf. The http header is usually X-WAP-Profile:, but sometimes may look more like 19-Profile:, WAP-Profile: or a number of other similar headers.

UAProf production for a device is voluntary: for GSM devices, the UAProf is normally produced by the vendor of the device (e.g. Nokia, Samsung, LG) whereas for CDMA / BREW devices it's more common for the UAProf to be produced by the telecommunications company.

Samsung UAProf: http://wap.samsungmobile.com/uaprof/GT-I9190.xml

Nokia UAProf: http://developer.nokia.com/gen/all_devices.rss

WURFL (Wireless Universal Resource FiLe)

WURFL (Wireless Universal Resource FiLe) is a community effort focused on mobile device detection. WURFL is a set of proprietary application programming interfaces (APIs) and an XML configuration file which contains information about device capabilities and features for a variety of mobile devices.

In simple, using WURFL mobile web sites and application can:

• programmatically abstract away devices differences
• avoid the need to modify applications whenever a new device ships
• avoid the need to track new devices on the market

Problem

Unlike the desktop web-channel, there is a tremendous amount of fragmentation in the mobile device-channel. Markup can be WML, HTML, HDML, XHTML Mobile Profile, etc. In addition, unlike a standard desktop web-channel, a wireless-device channel will vary on screen size, ability to support client side scripting, ability to support various image formats, and even color. Because the markup is generally sent directly to the phone, there is no opportunity for a central server to "fix" or adapt to browser limitations or defects. Software updates for mobile browsers are rare.

Solution 

WURFL solves this by allowing development of content pages using abstractions of page elements (buttons, links and textboxes for example). At run time, these are converted to the appropriate, specific markup types for each device. In addition, the developer can specify other content decisions be made at runtime based on device specific capabilities and features (which are all in the WURFL).

Download from here.

You can find C# example here.

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