WAP Based E-Kiosk for Educational Institution

WAP Based e-Kiosk for Educational Institution

Sumazly Sulaiman, Muhammad Suzuri Hj Hitam Department of Computer Science University College of Science and Technology Malaysia MALAYSIA

Abstract: - Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) based e-kiosk services application is implemented as an effort to introduce up-to-date communication technologies to the educational institution community. This application exploits the benefit and advantage of WAP technology, which enabled residents of the campus to receive the latest information and news via a WAP hand phone. This service provides an alternative to employ WAP technology in the world of academic. With this application, campus residence will be able to check their course schedules, exam result, receive latest news, receive and send emails and check out the latest issues and information from the library. This application may speed up communication and information flow between users. It has great potential to expand in the future, to deliver more extensive multimedia data and information. This paper present the architecture, system development and implementation of the WAP based e-kiosk for educational institution.

Key-words: - WAP, WML, WML Script, module, data, user

any WAP user agent. Often the server 1 Introduction component takes the role of a gateway routing e-kiosk for educational institution based on WAP the requests from the user agent to an was developed and tested in the University application server. College of Science and Technology Malaysia (KUSTEM). Target users for this service The gateway can be physically located in a application includes students, lecturers and staff telecom network or in a computer network, of the university that own a WAP enable mobile building a bridge between the two networks. phone. This service can be use to access and Figure 1 illustrates the WAP network structure. retrieve the latest information. The system development were build using the Wireless Markup Language (WML) and Active Server Pages (ASP). The application database were create on Microsoft Access. The application program were written using a Nokia Toolkit. A web module was built to ease system administration.

2 WAP Architecture Fig. 1 WAP Network Structure A WAP application consists of a server 2.1 Component application and a client application that the The WAP standard specifies two essential gateway downloads from the application server elements of wireless communication: an end-to- to the user agent for execution. A standard end application protocol and an application application environment is needed for running environment based on a browser. The the same client application on different mobile application protocol is a layered communication user agents. WAP provides such a standard, protocol that is embedded in each WAP-enabled consisting of a browser and a script interpreter. user agent. The network side includes a server The browser is very similar to a web browser component implementing the other end of the and can handle content described in WML. The protocol that is capable of communicating with browser also contains a built-in script interpreter for running applications in the user agent. These 2.2 Wireless Markup Language (WML) applications are written in a script language Wireless Markup Language (WML) is a markup called WMLScript. In addition to the language that is based on the Extensible Markup programming language itself, the script Language (XML) and is used for creating interpreter also implements a set of libraries that content destined for display on wireless mobile allow the application to access certain services devices. A WML source file has a MIME of the user agent. WML and WMLScript are content type of text/vnd.wap.wml. An encoded designed for use in wireless, narrowband or compiled WML file has a MIME content networks, and they are both binary encoded for type of application/vnd.wap.wmlc. optimum transmission efficiency. A WML file is called a deck which is the The WAP protocol consists of four layers smallest unit of WML that a web server can namely Session layer, Transaction layer, send to a user agent for processing in the mobile Security layer and Datagram layer. Figure 2 device. The basic constituent of a WML deck is illustrates the WAP protocol architecture with the card, which specifies a single interaction reference to a typical Internet protocol stack. between the device's user agent and the user. When a user agent receives a deck, it typically activates the first card in the deck, though it can be directed to any particular card in the deck.

3 Implementation The WAP service application is separated in two sections; administration to manage the data and the information of the system and application services that can be access by the users. The administration section is build based on web application, where else the application service is build in WAP based.

The user of this system is divided into registered Fig.2 WAP and Internet Protocol Stacks user and visitor. A user can register with the WAP master in the university (KUSTEM in this In most cases, the actual application or other case for running the test bed), if the user is a content is located on a web server. The content student or staff of the university. Otherwise, the can be native WAP, created with WML and user can only access the system as a visitor. A WMLScript, or it can be HTML. Some visitor has limited access to the system. gateways are capable of translating HTML into WML. In WAP, the content and the applications are addressed with an URL, in the same way as 4 Results in other Internet protocols as illustrates in figure 3. In a way, the WAP is similar to a Web model. The following results illustrates main screen shots of Web subsystem and WAP subsystem. The WAP subsystem was simulated using Nokia model 8310.

Fig. 3 WAP Network Protocol Structure Fig. 7 Login Choice

Fig. 4 Main Page for Web Subsystem

Fig. 8 Login User ID

Fig. 5 Main Page of WAP Subsystem

Fig. 9 Main Menu

In the Web subsystem, there are several modules. Some of the modules are shown below :

i. Registration Module This module allowed the W.A.P master to register a user for accessing the application provided. To register, a user needs to submit Fig. 6 University Logo their personal detail to the WAP master. The received information will be save in the system database.

Fig. 12 Delete User Data Module

Fig. 10 Registration Page In the WAP subsystem, there are several modules. Some of the modules are shown below ii. Displaying User Data Module : This module allowed the WAP master to display the information of the registered user. i. Library Module The information from this page are the data This module is to show the information about saved from the registration module. the library in the university. User can access to operation time of the library and the new books available in it. The library can update the information for example; new books now available.

Fig. 11 User Data Module iii. Delete User Data Module Fig. 13 Library Module This module allowed the W.A.P master to delete the user data from the database. By ii. University Bulletin Module deleting the data of a user, the user will not be This module is to show the latest bulletin of the able to login the system as a registered user. university. With this information the user can know the latest happening’s in their campus. This module shows the exam results of the students at the end of a semester. This module is specially created for the convenience of students.

Fig. 14 Bulletin Module

iii. Academic Calendar Module This module shows the activities for the academic calendar of the university. Fig. 17 Exam Result Module

V. Lab Status Module This module shows the operation time of the computer lab in the university. The user can check this page to know when the lab available.

Fig. 15 Academic Calendar Module iv. Campus Activity Module This module shows the activities in the campus. The user can access the page to know the latest activity. By doing this the user can also joint the activity if they are interested. Fig. 18 Lab Status Module 4 Conclusion This e-kiosk for educational institution was successfully developed and tested at University College of Science and Technology Malaysia as system test bed. The example shown are only some applications that can be embedded into the system. The WAP based application services was introduce to exploit its technology to the educational world. Thus increasing communication and interaction among campus residence.

Fig. 16 Campus Activity Module This system proves to have further potential development. In future, attractive multimedia iv. Exam Result Module elements can be added to the application as speed becomes more bearable. References: [1] Elijah Lovejoy, et al, Wireless Internet Enterprise Application, Wiley Computer Publishing, 2001 [2] Yi-Bing Lin & Imrich Chlamtac, Wireless And Mobile Network Architectures Wiley Computer Publishing, 2001 [3] Chris Bennett, Practical WAP : Developing Application For The Wireless Web, Cambridge University Press 2001 [4] William Stalling, Wireless Communication And Networking, Prentice-Hall International 2002 [5] Dave Mercer, ASP3.0 : A Beginner’s Guide, Osborne/McGraw-Hall, 2001 [5] For Web Professionals Prentice-Hall PTR [6] http://www.nokia.com [7] http://www.wapforum.com [8] http://www.devarticles.com