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Step 2. Hosting the .wml file

The next step is to get the 3510 to display the .wml file. You might wonder what this has to do with playing ringtones, but if you can't get this bit to work then you won't be able to download MIDI files either.

When you try to access a .wml file from the 3510's WAP browser, the WAP server reads the request and sends it across the internet, just like a web browser requesting a page. It retrieves the required .wml file and sends it back to the phone.

In order for the 3510 to be able to read your .wml file, you therefore need to somehow make it available for the WAP server to retrieve. This is where the hosting of your files comes into play.

There are two ways to host the .wml files, each of which has potential problems. The first is to use a web site provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) so that the ISP hosts the files for you. The second is to host the files on your own computer.

Each of these methods is described below.

Hosting the files using an ISP

Advantages:

Much easier to set up than IIS.
You can use your web site's URL to access the page rather than an IP address.
As the site is available all the time, you can offer downloads to other ringtone fans.

Disadvantages:

You have no control over the mime-types supported by the web server. This means it may not be possible for the 3510 to display the pages at all.

Some nice advantages, but that disadvantage is a bit of a worry. I've no idea how many web servers do or do not support the mime-type for .wml, but hopefully most of them should.

To get your .wml file hosted by your ISP, all you need to do is upload the test.wml file that you created earlier to your webspace, in the same way as you would when uploading and .html file. Once you've done that, you are ready to test the file, as described in the next section.

Hosting the files on your own PC using IIS

Advantages:

You have control over the mime-types and so can ensure that .wml files are supported for download.
It's easier to update the files available to download.

Disadvantages:

You need to have IIS (Internet Information Server) installed and configured on your PC. This is only available in Windows 2000 and some versions of Windows XP.
Unless you have a domain name configured to point at your computer, you will have to connect using your computer's IP address, which looks ugly and is harder to remember.
Most internet connections these days use "dynamic IP addresses". This means that every time you connect to the internet, your computer's IP address will be different. This even applies with Cable Modem or ADSL connections. This means that you can't give your site address to other people for them to download, as it will probably change on a regular basis.
Even if you have a fixed IP address, no one can download from your computer unless it is switched on and connected to the internet.
You will have to deal with any firewall or other security issues connecting to your computer from the internet.

Well, assuming those disadvantages haven't scared you off, let's continue. I am going to assume that if you are following this route, you are already pretty familiar with using IIS. If this is not the case then you're probably going to find this pretty heavy going -- I'd try using an ISP instead as described above.

First of all you will need to configure IIS for serving files to WAP browsers.

Link: Full information on configuring IIS for WAP is available from IISFAQ

Once this is complete you are ready to make your .wml file available. By default, IIS creates a folder on your C: drive called 'inetpub'. Within this folder is another called 'wwwroot'. This folder forms the base folder for files that will be served on your website through IIS.

To make the .wml file available for download, you therefore need to copy it to this folder. And that's all there is to it -- assuming it works ok, which we'll test in a moment.

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