A MIDlet is an application that uses the

Mobile Information Device Profile Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) is a specification published for the use of Java on embedded devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. MIDP is part of the Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) framework and sits on top of Connected Limi ...

(MIDP) of the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) for the

Java ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of portable code for embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, TV set-top ...

environment. Typical applications include games running on mobile devices and

cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s which have small graphical displays, simple numeric keypad interfaces and limited network access over

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, w ...

. MIDlet can run on Android devices via the J2ME Loader emulator application. The .jad file describing a MIDlet suite is used to deploy the applications in one of two ways. Over the air (OTA) deployment involves uploading the .jad and .jar files to a

Web server A web server is computer software and underlying hardware that accepts requests via HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS. A user agent, commonly a web browser or web crawler, initiate ...

which is accessible by the device over

. The user downloads the .jad file and installs the MIDlets they require. Local deployment requires that the MIDlet files be transferred to the device over a non-network connection (such as through

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...

IrDa The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) is an industry-driven interest group that was founded in 1994 by around 50 companies. IrDA provides specifications for a complete set of protocols for wireless infrared communications, and the name "IrDA" also ...

, and may involve device-specific software). Phones that support

microSD Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanD ...

cards can sometimes install .jar or .jad files that have been transferred to the memory card.

Restrictions

Unlike a

Java applet Java applets were small applications written in the Java programming language, or another programming language that compiles to Java bytecode, and delivered to users in the form of Java bytecode. The user launched the Java applet from a ...

, a MIDlet is limited to use of the

LCDUI Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) is a specification published for the use of Java on embedded devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. MIDP is part of the Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) framework and sits on top of Connected Lim ...

rather than the more familiar widgets of AWT and Swing. There are also restrictions on the size of .jar files and the number of concurrent HTTP connections based on the MIDP specification.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Midlet Java device platform Mobile software programming tools

Restrictions

See also

References