Help

There is plenty of documentation available to help you get the best of DeviceAtlas.

This page provides an introduction to the resource as a whole, and provides references to further reading as required.

If you have downloaded the API components, you may be looking for code documentation. We have Java, .NET and PHP reference documentation available – although note that that documentation is also shipped in the API distributions themselves for local usage.

Another useful resource is our Frequently-Asked-Questions page.

Introduction

dotMobi is committed to providing a wide range of tools and resources to help mobile developers build exciting applications for their users.

One of the biggest challenges facing mobile developers is the huge range of different mobile devices that their users seem intent on using. Unlike the traditional web, for example (where there are small numbers of relatively similar browsers), there are hundreds of web enabled mobile devices – and they are all a little bit different.

Understanding the differences and similarities between those thousands of mobile devices is an important part of modern mobile development. And yet finding detailed and accurate information about them – and then using it sensibly - is remarkably difficult.

DeviceAtlas is designed to make this task easier. We intend this to be the single largest, most comprehensive, and accurate device database on the planet – and to provide the supporting tools, techniques and assistance that you need to take that data and use it to rock your mobile users' world.

Using the DeviceAtlas web site

This DeviceAtlas web site provides access to view the mobile devices that we hold data about. Each device has its own page on the site, upon which we show a number of properties about that device.

There is a search feature that allows you to identify devices by name or manufacturer.

We also provide some basic analytics that let you visualise our device data. For example, you can see how device screen width varies with screen height, or, say, how many devices support a particular video format. There are some click-through capabilities that allow you to use these graphs as a way of navigating to devices with particular properties.

On the device page itself, the property information is clickable. We gather our device information from a variety of sources, and by clicking on a particular data field, you can see the provenance and heritage of that data.

Our device data

DeviceAtlas data comes from a variety of sources. Some is gathered from public domain sources, such as the User-Agent Profile resource for devices and the excellent WURFL project. Some is licenced directly from device manufacturers, network operators and infrastructure and tools providers.

And, increasingly, data will be provided by you, the community of mobile developers and users. We hope that, as the users of the site contribute information (a little like a wiki), the knowledge becomes increasingly balanced and authoritative. We’ll be launching this particular capability very soon.

As well as aiming to capture information about every mobile device out there, we aim to capture as much valuable information about each one as possible. The focus is on properties that are actually useful for mobile content and service providers.

We have started by working closely with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and their mobile Device Descriptions Working Group. Together, we have defined a list of core properties that we aim to keep for every device.

In addition, we have added a range of additional properties that we think are valuable for web developers, and will continue to grow the list of properties as demand dictates.

Using DeviceAtlas data in your applications

Many of you will want to use DeviceAtlas data in your own application. For instance, the data can be used for performing content adaptation of your mobile web site. And that requires you to download software and data to your local environment.

There are two elements to these downloads: a programming interface that can be used to conveniently access the data, and the device data itself, in the form of a single file.

The two elements are split out partly because of the rate of their change (the APIs change occasionally, and the device data changes rapidly), but also because the subscription to the data updates is subject to licence.

More information on downloading these components is available on the downloads page.

Each API provides a number of programmatic methods for accessing device data in response to an incoming request from a mobile device. Currently, our recognition algorithm relies on the user-agent HTTP header that comes from the device, and in return the API will indicate the specified property.

So, for example, if your application had loaded up the local device data and a mobile device accessed it with the user-agent header SonyEricssonZ800 which you placed in a variable called 'ua', you would be able to query its screen size from the DeviceAtlas data thus:

int width = Api.getPropertyAsInteger(data, ua, "screenWidth");

The API would tell you, quickly and simply, that the screen width for this device is 176 pixels. You would then be able to adjust the layout of your pages or graphics accordingly.

You can also access all of the properties about a given device as an associative array:

HashMap properties = Api.getProperties(data, ua);

(These examples are Java, but equivalent methods are available in all languages supported by the APIs)

Yes, it’s as simple as that.

How to help make DeviceAtlas better

We know that there will always be many ways in which we can improve DeviceAtlas as a resource. The most valuable way we can do that is by getting feedback from our users. We are always very happy to receive feedback.

DeviceAtlas benefits from community participation in a number of important ways:

• We are sure there are parts of the site and the APIs that could be improved. If you spot a way in which we could do that – or even, heaven forbid, a bug! – please do let us know.
• We’re going to be launching an editing interface that will allow you to express your own opinions about the devices in the database. When that’s launched, we really encourage you to get involved and help improve the breadth and depth of our data
• Word-of-mouth! If you enjoy using DeviceAtlas, please let your friends and colleagues know. Ultimately, the more users and supporters we get, the better the data will be.

Software updates

We have a page available on the site that will capture meaningful changes in what we called a Release History. Make sure you check it and see what we add from day to day.

That’s it for now folks. We hope you enjoy using it!