Pocket Internet Explorer Application Development (Windows CE 5.0)
The Microsoft® Pocket Internet Explorer is a full-featured Internet browser, optimized for devices with small, vertically oriented displays and for cached or customized content. HTML functionality for the mobile Internet browser is equivalent to that of Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.2, with support for tables, forms, and frames. A fit-to-screen option dynamically resizes Web pages to maximize viewing on handheld devices without requiring the user to scroll across a page. A Zoom menu option allows the user to view text on the screen in different sizes.
Note If a form submission results in a file download and it is interrupted, the download will not resume if the form post data is greater than 2048 bytes.
Automatic state-detection determines whether the device is connected to the Internet and, if not, diverts the browser to a cached version of the Web page. On Microsoft® Windows® CE-based devices that include Microsoft ActiveSync®, users can update their cached Web pages automatically by designating a Web page displayed on their desktop machine as a Mobile Favorite. Then, whenever the Windows Mobile–based device is synchronized to the desktop machine, the current version of that page is downloaded to the mobile Internet browser.
The following table describes the mobile Internet browser characterisctics.
| Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|
| ROM footprint | Exact footprint depends on processor. On X86, 398 KB for rendering/browser engine. 1.9 MB for all components. |
| Input devices | Touch or mouse, keyboard. |
| Fixed width layout | Dynamically fits text to device screen, eliminating need for user to scroll horizontally to read text. |
| User interface (UI) | Windows CE Standard Shell, which includes Favorites, Online Help, Forward/Back navigation, Clipboard (cut, copy and paste). |
| Localized languages | Localized in the same languages as Windows CE. |
| View HTML source | Save page as <filename>, then view. |
| Cookies | 50 elements, 4 KB maximum each. |
| Supported protocols | IPv4, IPv6 HTTP1.1 (http, https), FTP, FTPIR, NNTP, file://. |
| User agent (UA) string (specifies browser compatibility) | Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE). |
| Dynamic HTML (DHTML) | Limited support. |
| XML | Uses the Windows CE MSXML parser. |
| Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) | HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, XHTML Basic, with support for tables, forms, and frames.
No Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). |
| Scripting | Windows CE JScript 5.6 (ECMA-262 compliant). |
| Audio formats | WAV. |
| File formats | GIF, JPEG, BMP, XBM, PNG, HTML, TXT. |
| Multi-language support | Multiple Language API (MLang). |
| Link highlighting | Underlined. |
| Offline browsing | Page caching, subscriptions. |
| Encryption | 64-bit and 128-bit SSL. |
| Security | SSL2, SSL3, TLS 1.0, SGC. |
| User authentication | Basic, NTLM. |
| Cascading style sheets | CSS 1 and CSS Mobile Profile. |
This implementation of Pocket Internet Explorer does not support the following:
- Printing
- Java Virtual Machine
- Integration with Microsoft DirectX® application programming interface (API)
- Downloading of ActiveX® controls
- HTML editing and HTML Applications (HTAs)
- Context menu (right-click menu) support
- Intelligent forms for automatic completion of user input and saved passwords
- Font downloading
- Data binding
- Multiple windows
- Hit logging
- Recreational Software Advisory Council Internet (RSACi) rating system
- Channel Definition Format (CDF)
- Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)-type helpers
Mobile Internet Browser ActiveX Controls (SP Only)
ActiveX controls in the mobile Internet browser must not call trusted APIs. The mobile Internet browser now runs untrusted on the Windows Mobile-based Smartphone. ActiveX controls that require trusted APIs will not function properly and should be updated.
In This Section
- International Language Functionalities
Describes the international language settings that are available for use in the mobile Internet browser. - Identifying Pocket Internet Explorer to a Web Server
Provides information about how you can identify the mobile Internet browser to an IIS Web server and Window CE-based client. - About the Webview Browser Object
Describes the Webview Browser Object control that serves as the rendering engine for Pocket Internet Explorer.
Related Sections
- Pocket Internet Explorer OS Design Development
Provides information about the components and modules that implement Pocket Internet Explorer functionalities, and Sysgen variables that enable these functionalities. - Pocket Internet Explorer
Provides links to topics that contain information about Pocket Internet Explorer for Windows CE.
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