Use ASP.NET With Mobile Web Forms
Device filters and templates let you take advantage of standard ASP.NET controls in mobile applications.

VSLive! SF, Day 1, February 12, 2002 — The Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit (MMIT) lets developers create device-agnostic mobile Web applications quickly and easily. But there's a price: the Mobile Web Forms designer does not directly host standard ASP.NET server controls. This makes sense, since the MMIT supports non-HTML devices like the microbrowsers built into mobile phones.

Figure 1. Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too

But there is a way to use standard HTML and ASP.NET controls and have them displayed on devices which support them: MMIT filters and templates. By using the built-in isHTML32 device filter with the DeviceSpecific control and other controls that support templates (for example, the ObjectList control), you can insert straight HTML or any ASP.NET server control you'd like, including user controls (see Figure 1).

While the MMIT makes easy work of creating forms that work on both HTML- and non-HTML-compatible devices, it gracefully "gets out of your way" if you want to provide customized content for specific device types.

About the Author
Andrew J. Brust is the founder and president of New York City-based Progressive Systems Consulting Inc., specializing in custom business application development using .NET and other Microsoft technologies. Andrew is also a vice chair of the New York Software Industry Association (NYSIA), the trade organization for New York City-area software companies. Reach Andrew by e-mail at abrust@progsys.com or visit Progressive's Web site.