Integrating Openwave simulators with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

If you are developing mobile Web applications using ASP.NET (using the ASP.NET mobile controls), you can test your content with Openwave mobile browser simulators without leaving Microsoft Visual Studio .NET .  This is done by configuring Visual Studio .NET to take advantage of the command-line arguments supported by Openwave SDKs 4.1.1, 6.1, and 6.2. (These Openwave SDKs are available for free from the Openwave Developer Web site .)

Openwave SDK 4.1.1 contains a simulator for Openwave mobile browser 4.1, which adheres to the WAP 1.1 standard and renders content in WML. SDK 6.1 and 6.2 contain Openwave mobile browser 6.1 and 6.2 respectively, which adhere to the WAP 2.0 standard and render content in XHTML Mobile Profile and CSS. You can use any combination of simulators, depending on your needs and the target devices for your market. For details on browser capabilities and device deployments, see the Openwave Developer Web site .

For more information about integrating simulators with Visual Studio .NET, see the MSDN Mobile Internet Toolkit article "Working with Emulators and Browsers" .

Requirements

Integrating an Openwave simulator with Visual Studio

You install an Openwave simulator as an application browser in Visual Studio .NET.

  1. Start Visual Studio .NET.

  2. Open or create a mobile web project.

  3. From the File menu, select Browse With.

  4. In the Browse With dialog box, click Add.

  5. In the Add Program dialog box, enter the SDK simulator's application path name in the Program name field, or click Browse to browse to it.

    If you installed the SDKs in their default locations, the path names are: 

    SDK 6.2: "C:\Program Files\Openwave\SDK 6.2\program\http\OSDK62http.exe"
    SDK 6.1: "C:\Program Files\Openwave\SDK 6.1\program\http\OSDK61http.exe" 
    SDK 4.1.1: "C:\Program Files\Openwave\UPSDK411\upsim411.exe"

    In the Add Program dialog box's Friendly name field, enter any appropriate name, such as Openwave SDK 6.1.



    For SDK 4.1.1 only:

    Following the path name of the SDK 4.1.1 executable in the Add Program dialog box, you must append -reload %URL.

    Be sure to enclose the application's path name in double quotes ( " ), but append command-line arguments outside the quotes.

    Add Program Dialog Box

  6. Click OK.

    For SDK 4.1.1 only:

    When you click OK, you will get a message that informs you "File name does not exist, is invalid, or contains parameters that cannot be validated. Do you want to change your entry?"  You may just click No in response to this.

  7. In the Browse With dialog, click Set as Default  to make the Openwave simulator the default browser to test with.

  8. Click Close.

Testing with the Openwave simulator

To test your applications with the Openwave simulator in Visual Studio .NET, select File > Build and Browse or File > Browse .  

The Openwave simulator starts with one or two windows depending on the version.  The main simulator window always gets initialized and the Phone Information window may get initialized as well. Either window may launch minimized or in the background, so you may have to bring it to the foreground.

As you debug and make changes, you can again select File > Build and Browse to update the running simulator and pass it the URL you are currently working on. This way you can test your current page or move between pages.

You can also navigate using the Openwave simulator itself, selecting links or entering URLs in the simulator's "Go" field.

Debugging with the Openwave simulator

To debug your application using the Openwave simulator and the Visual Studio .NET debugger, simply choose the Debug > Start or Debug > Start Without Debugging commands.  The Openwave simulator will be launched and will display the running application, while the Visual Studio .NET debugger will allow you to watch variables, step through code, and perform other debugging tasks.

If you are using the Openwave SDK 4.1.1, however, you must first change your project's debug configuration.

  1. In the Solution Explorer, right-click on your project and choose the Properties command.

  2. In the Property Pages dialog for your project, select Debugging under the Configuration Properties folder.

  3. Set the Debug Mode property to Program.

  4. Set the Start Application property to the full path of the Openwave SDK 4.1.1 executable.   If you installed the SDK in the default location, the path name is:

    C:\Program Files\Openwave\UPSDK411\upsim411.exe

  5. Set the Command Line Arguments property to -reload, followed by the absolute URL of the start page of your application.



  6. Click OK to close the dialog.  The project is now configured for debugging with the Openwave 4.1.1 simulator.

Controlling a running simulator with Visual Studio .NET

You can create menu items in Visual Studio that send command-line arguments to a running Openwave simulator.

The simulator features a number of command-line arguments, such as -clearcache to clear the simulator's cache, -pho to change the simulator's configuration file (or "skin"), and -lang for changing the language, character set, and related localization settings the simulator sends in ACCEPT headers to web servers. For a complete list and description of simulator command-line arguments, see the Openwave SDK release notes.

  1. Select Tools > External Tools and in the External Tools dialog box, click Add.

  2. Replace [New Tool 1] in the Title field with a name for the new menu item.

  3. In the Command field, enter the SDK simulator's application path name, or click the ellipses button ( ... ) to browse to it.

    If you installed the SDK in the default location, the path name is (SDK 6.1 in this example):

    C:\Program Files\Openwave\SDK 6.1\program\http\OSDK61http.exe

    Note: Unlike the Program name field in the Add Program dialog box described earlier, you don't need to surround the path name in quotes.

  4. In the Arguments field, enter an Openwave simulator command-line argument.

    Because the simulator accepts only one argument at a time when it's running, you need to create separate Visual Studio menu items for each command-line argument you want to pass to the simulator.

  5. Click the arrow to the right of the Initial directory field and select Target Directory.

    External Tools Dialog Box

  6. Click OK

    The menu item is added to the Tools menu.


Notes

There are some Openwave simulator command-line arguments that you can only use when you start the simulator, and there may be some that you want to set as defaults (for example, the default language or default simulator configuration file, or "skin"). In these cases, you can start the simulator using a batch file with all the arguments you need. One way to to this is to edit the batch file called when you start the simulator using its Start menu item, C:\Program Files\Openwave\SDK 6.1\program\OSDK61http.cmd . For details, see the Openwave SDK release notes.

If you are using SDK 4.1.1, the first time you launch the simulator using Build and Browse, the -reload argument is not handled correctly. The easy workaround is to just call Browse again, or to launch the simulator using its own Start menu item or a batch file first. All subsequent reloads work correctly.

TNVS-004
January 2003