WURFL (Wireless Universal Resource FiLe) is a set of proprietary

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that des ...

s (APIs) and an

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

configuration file A configuration file, a.k.a. config file, is a computer file, file that stores computer data, data used to configure a software system such as an application software, application, a server (computing), server or an operating system. Some applic ...

which contains information about device capabilities and features for a variety of mobile devices, focused on mobile device detection. Until version 2.2, WURFL was released under an "open source / public domain" license. Prior to version 2.2, device information was contributed by developers around the world and the WURFL was updated frequently, reflecting new wireless devices coming on the market. In June 2011, the founder of the WURFL project, Luca Passani, and Steve Kamerman, the author of Tera-WURFL, a popular PHP WURFL API, formed ScientiaMobile, Inc to provide commercial mobile device detection support and services using WURFL. As of August 30, 2011, the ScientiaMobile WURFL APIs are licensed under a

dual-license Multi-licensing is the practice of distributing software under two or more different sets of terms and conditions. This may mean multiple different software licenses or sets of licenses. Prefixes may be used to indicate the number of licenses ...

model, using the AGPL license for non-commercial use and a proprietary commercial license. The current version of the WURFL database itself is no longer open source.

Solution approaches

There have been several approaches to this problem, including developing very primitive content and hoping it works on a variety of devices, limiting support to a small subset of devices or bypassing the browser solution altogether and developing a

Java ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of porting, portable code for embedded system, embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digita ...

BREW Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW, also known as Brew MP or Qualcomm BREW) is an obsolete application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phones, featuring third-party a ...

client application. WURFL solves this by allowing development of content pages using abstractions of page elements (buttons, links and textboxes for example). At run time, these are converted to the appropriate, specific markup types for each device. In addition, the developer can specify other content decisions be made at runtime based on device specific capabilities and features (which are all in the WURFL).

WURFL Cloud

In March 2012, ScientiaMobile has announced the launch of the WURFL Cloud. While the WURFL Cloud is a paid service, a free offer is made available to hobbyists and micro-companies for use on mobile sites with limited traffic. Currently, the WURFL Cloud supports Java, Microsoft .NET, PHP, Ruby, Python,

Node.js Node.js is a cross-platform, open-source JavaScript runtime environment that can run on Windows, Linux, Unix, macOS, and more. Node.js runs on the V8 JavaScript engine, and executes JavaScript code outside a web browser. Node.js lets develope ...

and the Perl programming languages

WURFL and Apache, NGINX, Varnish Cache, and HAProxy

In October 2012, ScientiaMobile has announced the availability of a

C++ C++ (, pronounced "C plus plus" and sometimes abbreviated as CPP or CXX) is a high-level, general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup. First released in 1985 as an extension of the C programmin ...

API, an

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

module, an

NGINX (pronounced "engine x" , stylized as NGINX or nginx) is a web server that can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. The software was created by Russian developer Igor Sysoev and publicly released in 20 ...

module and Varnish Cache module. Later in November 2016, ScientiaMobile provided a module for the HAProxy load balancer. Differently from other WURFL APIs, the C++ API and the modules are distributed commercially exclusively. Several popular

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

are supported through

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

and DEB packages.

WURFL.io

In 2014, WURFL.io was launched. WURFL.io features non-commercial products and services from ScientiaMobile: * WURFL.js: a JavaScript device detection service that makes Server-Side detected properties (WURFL capabilities) available to the JavaScript in web pages. * ImageEngine: a WURFL-based Image CDN for optimizing image delivery on the web. * The MOVR (Mobile OverView Report) providing the latest in mobile and web statistics.

WALL, Wireless Abstraction Library

WALL (Wireless Abstraction Library by Luca Passani) is a JSP tag library that lets a developer author mobile pages similar to plain HTML, while delivering WML,

C-HTML i-mode (, ) is a Japanese mobile internet (distinct from wireless internet) service operated by NTT DoCoMo. Unlike Wireless Application Protocols, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail, and th ...

and

XHTML Mobile Profile XHTML Mobile Profile (XHTML MP) is an obsolete hypertextual computer language designed specifically for mobile phones and other resource-constrained devices. It is an XHTML document type defined by the Open Mobile Alliance. XHTML-MP is derived f ...

to the device from which the

HTTP request HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) 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, wher ...

originates, depending on the actual capabilities of the device itself. Device capabilities are queried dynamically using the WURFL API. A WALL port to PHP (called WALL4PHP) is also available.

Supported implementations

WURFL is currently supported using the following. *

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

(via WALL) *

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...

(via Tera-WURFL (database driven), the new WURFL PHP API and WALL4PHP) * .NET Framework (via Visual Basic / C# / any .NET language API and Somms.NWURFL(C#)) *

Perl Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language". Perl was developed ...

Ruby Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (prog ...

(via Python Tools) *

XSLT XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a language originally designed for transforming XML documents into other XML documents, or other formats such as HTML for web pages, plain text, or XSL Formatting Objects. These formats c ...

* Apache Mobile Filter The PHP/MySQL based Tera-WURFL API comes with a remote webservice that allows you to query the WURFL from any language that supports XML webservices and includes clients for the following languages out of the box: * PHP * Perl * Python * JavaScript * ActionScript 3 (Flash / Flex / AIR / ECMAScript)

License update

The August 29, 2011 update of WURFL included a new set of licensing terms. These terms set forth a number of licenses under which WURFL could be used. The free version of the license does not allow derivative works, and prevents direct access to the wurfl.xml file. As a result of the "no-derivates" clause, users are no longer permitted to add new device capabilities to the WURFL file either directly or through the submissions of "patches". A commercial license is required to utilize third-party API's with the WURFL Repository. On January 3, 2012, ScientiaMobile filed a

DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...

takedown notice against the open-source device database OpenDDR that contains data from a previous version of WURFL. According to OpenDDR, these data were available under GPL. On March 22, 2012 it was announced by Matthew Weier O'Phinney that

Zend Framework Laminas Project (formerly Zend Framework or ZF) is an open source, object-oriented web application framework implemented in PHP 7 and licensed under the New BSD License. The framework is basically a collection of professional PHP-based pac ...

would be dropping support for WURFL as of version 1.12. This was due to the licence change which makes it incompatible with the

licensing A license (American English) or licence ( Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another par ...

as the new licensing now requires that you "open-source the full source code of your web site, irrespective of the fact that you may modify the WURFL API or not."The AGPL license demands that you open-source the full source code of your web site, irrespective of the fact that you may modify the WURFL API or not.
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References

External links

* * * * * * {{Official website , url=https://github.com/WURFL , name=WURFL on GitHub Wireless networking Web development Software using the GNU Affero General Public License