4.4. UAProf Components and Attributes

The UAProf specification has defined a number of base components and attribute names so that different mobile device manufacturers will not use different components and attribute names to describe the same property. For example, the screen size of a cell phone is always found in the ScreenSize attribute of the HardwarePlatform component no matter its manufacturer is Nokia, Motorola or Sony Ericsson. A reference of the base components and attribute names is available at "UAProf Reference".

The following table provides a brief description of the components that you may find in a user agent profile:


UAProf component

Brief description

HardwarePlatform

The HardwarePlatform component provides information about the hardware capabilities of the mobile device.

Examples: color capability, model name of mobile device, text input capability, screen size and sound capability.

SoftwarePlatform

The SoftwarePlatform component provides information about the software characteristics of the mobile device.

Examples: audio and video encoders supported, character sets accepted, Java capability, acceptable content types / MIME types and operating system name and version.

NetworkCharacteristics

The NetworkCharacteristics component provides information about the capabilities of the mobile device for network connection.

Examples: bearers supported (CSD, GPRS, SMS, EDGE...) and encryption methods supported (WTLS, SSL, TLS...).

BrowserUA

The BrowserUA component provides information about the browser of the mobile device.

Examples: mobile browser name and version, HTML version supported, XHTML version supported and JavaScript capability.

WapCharacteristics

The WapCharacteristics component provides information about the WAP features supported by the mobile device.

Examples: DRM (digital rights management) capability, maximum WML deck size, WAP version supported and WMLScript libraries supported.

PushCharacteristics

The PushCharacteristics component provides information about the WAP Push capabilities of the mobile device.

Examples: character encodings supported, character sets supported, content types / MIME types supported and maximum WAP Push message size.

MmsCharacteristics

The MmsCharacteristics component provides information about the MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) capabilities of the mobile device.

Examples: maximum MMS message size supported, maximum image resolution supported and character sets supported.


4.4.1. Collection Types and Attribute Types in UAProf

In UAProf, every attribute is associated with a collection type and an attribute type. There are three collection types (Simple, Bag, Seq) and four attribute types (Boolean, Dimension, Literal, Number). The following two tables provide a brief description about the collection types and attribute types in UAProf:


Collection type

Description

Simple

An attribute of the Simple collection type has a single value. An example is the ScreenSize attribute:

<prf:ScreenSize>208x208</prf:ScreenSize>

Bag

An attribute of the Bag collection type has a list of unordered values. An example is the CcppAccept-Charset attribute, which tells us the character sets supported by a wireless device:

<prf:CcppAccept-Charset>
  <rdf:Bag>
    <rdf:li>UTF-8</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>ISO-10646-UCS-2</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>ISO-8859-1</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>US-ASCII</rdf:li>
  </rdf:Bag>
</prf:CcppAccept-Charset>

Seq

An attribute of the Seq collection type has a list of ordered values. An example is the CcppAccept-Language attribute, which tells us the language preference of the user. The items are listed in order of preference. For example, the first list item is the most preferred language.

<prf:CcppAccept-Language>
  <rdf:Seq>
    <rdf:li>en</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>de</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>fr</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>zh-TW</rdf:li>
    <rdf:li>zh-CN</rdf:li>
  </rdf:Seq>
</prf:CcppAccept-Language>


Attribute type

Description

Boolean

Yes or No.

An example is the ColorCapable attribute:

<prf:ColorCapable>Yes</prf:ColorCapable>

Dimension

Two integers equal to or greater than 0 with an "x" character in between.

An example is the ScreenSize attribute:

<prf:ScreenSize>208x208</prf:ScreenSize>

Literal

A string.

An example is the Vendor attribute:

<prf:Vendor>Nokia</prf:Vendor>

Number

An integer equals to or greater than 0. An example is the Push-MsgSize attribute, which contains the maximum WAP Push message size:

<prf:Push-MsgSize>1400</prf:Push-MsgSize>



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