Wireless Java Programming with J2ME

This book provides a nicely packaged tutorial for wireless development, beginning with a tour of the acronym-laden world of Java wireless devices based on the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). You'll learn about the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), which this text centers on, plus the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC). Clearly, this is a market in flux, and the authors do a good job of describing the kinds of J2ME devices available today. They also explain what's different about J2ME development when compared to traditional Java 2 programming.

After this introduction, the book delves into the APIs you'll need to master to use J2ME. The authors create a number of "MIDlets" for wireless devices (such as a PIM and eventually a front end for an online bookstore). They cover the new APIs that are used to program such devices. This includes the higher-level UI library for MIDP devices, which lets developers design for the restricted displays of these devices. They also cover lower-level graphics, which calls for a more do-it-yourself approach to UI design. Illustrated with a calendar utility, they show you how to draw on the screen of a wireless device.

Later sections look at other features that you need to create robust wireless applications in Java, including network connectivity options (like sockets and HTTP), plus storing records in the built-in storage APIs that come built-in on the platform. The book also covers the surprising variety of XML tools that let you add XML support to wireless applications. The centerpiece of this text is the authors' MotoShop--a case study for a wireless front end for an online bookstore, which is used to demonstrate many of the techniques covered earlier in the text. Final sections on SyncML (for synchronizing data between wireless devices) and new support for Java on the popular DoCoMo i-Mode platform help round out this book.

With the wireless marketplace poised for explosive growth, this title can let Java developers get ready for a new kind of Java platform. This book delivers a very solid tour of what an intermediate to advanced programmer needs to get started building the next generation of wireless software in Java. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Overview of Java development for wireless devices
• Overview of the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME)
• Key J2ME standards explained: the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC), and the K Virtual Machine (KVM)
• Using Sun's J2ME Wireless Toolkit and Motorola's MotoSDK for wireless development
• CLDC versus MIDP libraries
• MIDlets
• Limitations for CDLC devices and the KVM
• J2ME security
• Packaging and deploying MIDlets
• Tutorial for user-interface design with the UI for Wireless Devices (including images and event handling)
• High-level UI APIs (including lists and choices, text boxes, alerts, and forms)
• Low-level UI APIs (including drawing graphics shapes and text, double-buffering, plus a calendar example)
• Persistent storage (record stores, adding and deleting records, enumerating records, a sample mobile scheduler)
• Network programming in J2ME MIDP (the Generic Connection Framework, programming with sockets, datagrams, and HTTP)
• XML for wireless applications (survey of wireless XML parsers including SAX 1.0, TinyXML, and NanoXML)
• Case study for a mobile book-ordering application
• Data synchronization (SyncML protocols, a mobile scheduler)
• Reference to CLDC and MIDP class libraries
• NTT DoCoMo's Java for i-Mode introduced

The examples in the book are excellent. Some examples about Networking, XML and SyncML, addresses the real problems every developer would encounter.

Considering the book comes so early, its coverage on J2ME is pretty decent. High level introduction of J2ME is not very comprehensive but very precise and informative.


Just About All That Is Available   December 22, 2001
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

Not many books are yet available on J2ME. For this reason alone, this text is decent. However, much of the text is simple embellishement of the limited J2ME MIDP documentation available from Sun. The examples are decent but sometimes confusing -- I typed in several and experienced minor problems with a few. My basic issue with the text is the lack of explaination. Code examples are good, but explaination is better and the topics are only modestly explained.

Overall, a decent first book on this issue but nothing spectacular.


Average book but good compared to what is out there.   September 11, 2001
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Normally I would rank this book as average, however compared to the books that are out there on J2ME technologies this book is good. The high level overview is informative and I liked that it drilled into the details of J2ME application development. The examples are and simple and clear. Overall, a good book for intermediate java programmers looking to get their foot into the J2ME door.


excellent book   September 11, 2001
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

An excellent book for experienced Java developers who want to quickly learn J2ME. It covers almost everything you need to know about J2ME MIDP programming. This book is very comprehesive and contains a lot of valuable infomation. The code examples are useful and clearly illustrate the points made. I highly recommend this book if you want to get into writing J2ME applications.