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Development Resources Center - WCTP

The Wireless Communications Transfer Protocol (WCTP) is the industry standard method of transferring alphanumeric and binary messages between wireline systems and wireless messaging devices. The protocol may be used for communication with all SkyTel one-way and two-way devices.

Users may take advantage of SkyTel's WCTP Version 1.1 Production Gateway or use the additional functionality available in SkyTel's WCTP Version 1.2 Beta Release 1 Gateway.

 
WCTP Version 1.1 Production Gateway

The SkyTel WCTP Version 1.1 Production Gateway may be accessed via HTTP or HTTPS using the following:

Host  wctp.skytel.com
Path  wctp
Port 
(these are the
only accessible
ports)		 80 (HTTP)
8080 (HTTP)
443 (HTTPS)
Content-Type text/xml

The following are links to WCTP Version 1.1 documentation and DTD.

WCTP Version 1.1 DTD
http://www.skytel.com/protocols/dtds/wctp/wctpv1-1.dtd 

WCTP Version 1.1 Specification Version (PDF)
WCTP Version 1.1 Use Case Companion Version (PDF)

Technical Notes

Originating Messages from a Wireless Device

To direct the messages through the WCTP gateway from a SkyTel wireless device, use email addressing and prefix "msg:" to the URL. 

For example, to send to a server with the URL 

wctp.company.com/wctp

the recipient address would be specified as 

msg:wctp.company.com/wctp

To use WCTP on RIM devices, Message Services on the device must be set to SkyTel. 


Aliases

Request an Alias  |  Manage Alias

SkyTel's WCTP gateway is capable of resolving an assigned alias to a WCTP address. An enterprise may choose to use an alias to:

  • Decrease the number of characters that a device sends over the air by replacing the address with a shorter alias string.
  • Ease management of WCTP address changes by limiting updates of the changes to alias registration.

For more information download the following document - Using Aliases (PDF)

Using HTTP 1.1

WCTP Version 1.1 specifies use of HTTP 1.0 as transport for WCTP XML. SkyTel's Production and Beta Gateways are capable of transport using HTTP 1.1.

For more information download the following document - Using HTTP 1.1. (PDF)

Attribute Characterization

WCTP Version 1.1 identified the attributes used by the protocol, but did not specify the format and field lengths. Refer to the Attribute Characterization document for field lengths and format applicable to both Version 1.1 and Version 1.2 Beta Release 1.

Attribute Characterization (PDF)


WCTP Open Source Library 

wctpXml offers C++ developers a class library to support generating WCTP requests and parsing WCTP responses expressed in XML. Building wctpXml creates a static library appropriate for your environment - WctpXml.lib (Visual C++) or libWctpXml.a (Linux) that provides you with a set of classes, wctpXmlXXXX, that encapsulate the operations supported in WCTP Version 1.1. 

  • Information About wctpXml

To submit suggestions or feedback on the wctpXml library, please email skytel.wctpxml@skytel.com. To be notified about upcoming releases or other important information about the wctpXml library, please join the wctpXml mailing list. To join, send an email to skytel.wctpxml@skytel.com with a subject line of 'subscribe wctpXml'. To remove yourself from the mailing list, send an email to skytel.wctpxml@skytel.com with a subject line of 'unsubscribe wctpXml'.

  • wctpXml 

wctpXml is freely available with source under a very liberal license (the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1). The expat library used as the non-validating XML parser is included here under its own license. The latest production version of wctpXml can be downloaded from either http://www.skytel.com/downloads/wctpxml/wctpxml_vc.zip or http://www.skytel.com/downloads/wctpxml/wctpxml_linux.zip, depending on the operating system to be used. This version of wctpXml has been built and tested with both Microsoft's Visual C++ 6.0 under Windows 95/98 and GNU C++ version 2.96 under Redhat Linux 7 with a 2.2.16 kernel.

  • expat

wctpXml uses James Clark's non-validating XML parsing library, expat, to parse the WCTP/XML operations. wctpXml Version 1.0 was built using expat 1.2 (included in the release package). The latest production version of James Clark's expat can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.jclark.com/pub/xml/expat.zip.

 

 
WCTP Version 1.2 Beta Release 1 Gateway 

The SkyTel Version 1.2 Beta Release 1 Gateway is a production quality gateway that includes functionality that has been agreed upon by the WCTP Working Group for WCTP Version 1.2. Please note, however, that the behavior of the Beta gateway is subject to change.

The SkyTel WCTP Version 1.2 Beta Release 1 Gateway may be accessed via HTTP or HTTPS using the following.

Host  wctp.skytel.com
Path  wctpbeta
Port 
(these are the
only accessible
ports)		 80 (HTTP)
8080 (HTTP)
443 (HTTPS)
Content-Type text/xml

WCTP Version 1.2 Beta Release 1 DTD

When using the SkyTel WCTP Version 1.2 Beta Release Gateway, refer to the following DTD.

SkyTel WCTP Version 1.2 Beta Release DTD
http://www.skytel.com/protocols/dtds/wctp/wctpv1-2sb102.dtd 

Specify WCTP-DTD-V1R2 as the wctpVersion.

 
WCTP Version 1.2 Beta Release 1 Functionality

In addition to the functionality available in WCTP Version 1.1, the following new operations are available:

  • Recovering from Server or Network Failures
    The Return to Service operation allows an enterprise to communicate that it has recovered from a network or server failure to the SkyTel WCTP gateway. 

    For more information download the following document - Recovering from Server or Network Failures (PDF)
     
  • Sending To Multiple Recipients
    The Send to Multiple Recipients operation allows an enterprise to send a message to up to 50 recipients.

    For more information download the following document - Sending to Multiple Recipients (PDF)