M-Business Client supports a rich palette of features that Web designers can use to create effective HTML pages. To make more effective use of the limited memory available on mobile devices, some of the least used features found in desktop browsers, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, have been omitted. The majority of features that are used in most Web sites are fully supported.

Web designers for mobile devices will find that they can continue to use most of the features they are accustomed to using in pages designed for desktop browsers. The greatest challenge is posed by the inherent limitations of mobile devices: small screens, limited color depth, or no color at all in older models.

There is also greater variation in the way a page displays on different mobile devices, as compared with the variations in how the same page may display on PCs running different browsers on different monitors. For guidance on designing HTML pages for M-Business Client, see Designing pages for the channel Web site.

HTML page development tools

You can use any tool with which you are comfortable to develop HTML pages. These tools include any text editor such as emacs, TextPad, Notepad, up to high-end products such as DreamWeaver.

JavaScript

JavaScript provides you, the Web developer, a quick and simple language to use for enhancing Web pages and servers. A segment of JavaScript functionality is embedded as a small program within a Web page which is in turn interpreted and executed by the Web client. JavaScript functions that can be called from within a Web document are often executed by mouse functions, buttons, or other user-initiated actions. For additional information about the decision to use JavaScript Engine versus PODS, see Choosing a language.

Cascading style sheets (CSS)

M-Business Client supports inline CSS and embedded style sheets. External style sheets, stored in separate .css files, are not currently supported. Using CSS with JavaScript provides dynamic HTML (DHTML). For more information on using DHTML with M-Business Client, see Using dynamic HTML.

Screen widths

Mobile devices impose severe constraints on HTML page design due to limitations on device screen widths. The following table lists sample screen widths for a number of supported devices.