Stupid question on connections on Palms

[John Wetherbie]

I am trying to figure out how to access a website from a Palm using an HTTP connection. Do I have to have a wireless Palm to do this? I am assuming I can't do this via the hot synch cradle.
Thanks,
John

[Eric Giguere]

Actually, you can do it both ways. If you have a wireless Palm you can use the "http" protocol, if you have a non-wireless Palm you can use the "testhttp" protocol. The latter requires that your Palm be in its cradle and that you have configured it properly for PPP... but yes, it's all possible.
Eric

[Andrew Brasek]

Eric,
Hey, is http and testhttp covered in your book?

[Eric Giguere]

Briefly, yes. The CLDC reference implementation does come with a sample program. The only trick is that you have to configure your device or emulator for communications properly before you try to run the program -- that's really independent of anything else.
Eric

[John Wetherbie]

Thanks for the info. I recall seeing something about http & testhttp in your book. Does the documentation that comes with the CLDC talk about how to configure your Palm?
Thanks,
John

[Eric Giguere]

Hmm... I don't recall. Probably not. It's really not CLDC-specific: basically you need to configure the Palm for PPP if you're running out of the cradle or for wireless communication if you're not (the latter of course limits you to a Palm VII or a Palm V with OmniSky or something similar). If you can get regular network apps to work your Java apps should also work. I posted some hints up on the KVM-INTEREST list, so you could search that archive... actually, here's my posting:
To use the "http" and "https" protocols with the Palm port of the CLDC
reference implementation, you need to configure your emulator to work
"wirelessly". Just redirecting NetLib to the local TCP/IP stack (which you
should do anyhow) isn't enough, because the wireless stuff goes through a
different library. Do this:
0) Make sure you're running the Palm VII ROMs.
1) Tap on the Prefs icon and choose the "Wireless" item.
2) Enter 209.247.202.106 as the IP address.
3) Go to the "Network" item and choose "Windows direct".
4) Reset POSE.
5) Now go to the apps listing and select the "Fidelity" icon, type in your
favorite stock symbol and press the "Quote" button. If you don't get a
stock quote back then you haven't configured things correctly yet, so no
point in trying the Java stuff. Keep playing around until it works.
Then you'll be able to run KvmHttpTest. Note that the URL that KvmHttpTest
uses for its first test is no longer valid, so it will fail. You can change
the source to use something like http://www.yahoo.com/index.html instead.
Note that the "testhttp" protocol doesn't use the wireless stuff, but it
should work as well once you redirect TCP/IP.
Eric

[John Wetherbie]

Hi, Eric.
I looked at Prefs/Network/Detail on my Palm (a IIIxe) and it shows the connection type as PPP so that looks OK. Do you know if I should set the Connection to Palm Modem US/Canada, Direct Serial, or Current? I'll just play around with it and see what happens.
John