Six years ago I started playing around with XML, XSL and WML/WAP using an early version of the Oracle XML Developer’s Toolkit as an interesting little change from DBA work. I ended up presenting ‘Developing Dynamic WAP-Enabled Websites using Oracle’s XML Tools’ at Openworld in San Francisco, EOUG in Madrid and UKOUG in Birmingham. You should imply nothing from the order I’ve listed those events 😉 It was a fun time.
My simple example application screen-scraped what was (and is probably still) the premier job site for IT contractors in the UK – Jobserve.com – and allowed you to view newly-posted contract positions on a mobile phone. Hopefully whilst sitting on the beach or in the park 😉 Of course, the day before my presentation in San Francisco, Oracle announced a mobile edition of App Server, which made everything much easier to implement, but it used more or less the same approach as the paper discusses and I think the general principles still hold true.
Anyway, this week I noticed the following in a regular Jobserve email I receive.
JobServe Mobile for job hunting on the move
A new Mobile version of JobServe has been launched for use on phones and PDA’s. Jobseekers can search and view jobs and registered users who have a saved CV can even apply for a job there and then.
What a technology pioneer I am 😉
I may, however, have been a little hasty in predicting that WAP would win out in the mobile platform stakes and I distinctly remember Peter Robson gently ribbing me about my evangelism immediately after the presentation in Birmingham!