9. Setting up Default Documents of WAP / Web Sites

9.1. What is a Default Document / Directory Index / Welcome File?

• The default document of a WAP / web site is the file to be served if the user requests a directory.

• It can also be called the directory index or welcome file.

• Let's say the default document is index.html. If the user requests the URL http://www.developershome.com/, the file located at http://www.developershome.com/index.html will be served to the user.

9.2. Why Should we Set the Default Document of a WAP Site?

Make sure you have set an appropriate file as the default document of your WAP site because:

• Typing text on a mobile phone using the keypad is very time-consuming.

• Users like short URLs. For example, they like "http://wap.developershome.com/" more than "http://wap.developershome.com/index.xhtml".

On most web servers, the pre-set default document is very often index.html, index.htm, default.html or default.htm. Since you are now setting up a WAP site, one thing that you may want to do is to change the file extension of the default document to ".wml" or ".xhtml".

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