Programming Visual Basic for the Palm OS

Simple WCA Tour

In this section, we build a simple but complete WCA application. The application contains both local HTML pages and graphical images. In addition, it has a standard HTML form that posts to an ASP on Microsoft’s IIS. The ASP simply reverses the text and writes the data back to the WCA.

We are not going to discuss creating or debugging Microsoft IIS applications in this chapter. We assume that you know how to build an ASP application, and are reasonably familiar with VB script and object construction techniques.

The standard tool for building WCA applications is the WCA Builder for Windows: WCABuild.exe.^[47] This application compiles HTML pages and linked graphics into the proprietary PQA format used on the Palm PDA. The WCA Builder expects your application to be organized in a strict hierarchy with one HTML document at the top level. Of course, this document may have multiple links to other local (and remote) pages and images.

During compilation, the WCA Builder scans the index page for references to other local HTML pages or images. It pulls any pages found into the WCA, and then recursively scans those pages looking for more links. As it compiles, the tool compresses the files to save space on the Palm PDA. If there are no errors, the WCA Builder creates a PQA file that is ready to run.

Our application consists of a WCA top-level—or index—page, Ch6a.html. In our case, the index page has a link to another local page, Ch6aAbout.html. The home page also has a standard ...