Types of Profiles in J2ME

By: Jagan

A profile complements a configuration by adding additional classes that provide features appropriate to a particular type of device or to a specific vertical market segment. Both J2ME configurations have one or more associated profiles, some of which may themselves rely on other profiles. These processes are described in the following list:

Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP)

This profile adds networking, user interface components, and local storage to CLDC. This profile is primarily aimed at the limited display and storage facilities of mobile phones, and it therefore provides a relatively simple user interface and basic networking based on HTTP 1.1. MIDP is the best known of the J2ME profiles because it is the basis for Wireless Java and is currently the only profile available for PalmOSbased handhelds.

PDA Profile (PDAP)

The PDA Profile is similar to MIDP, but it is aimed at PDAs that have better screens and more memory than cell phones. The PDA profile, which is not complete at the time of writing, will offer a more sophisticated user interface library and a Java-based 1 It could be argued that CLDC breaks this rule with its networking classes, because there is no usable subset of the java.net package that would fit into the restricted memory available to a CLDC-based device. This problem is solved by creating a new package that contains a more lightweight set of networking classes. API for accessing useful features of the host operating system. When this profile becomes available, it is likely to take over from MIDP as the J2ME platform for small handheld computers such as those from Palm and Handspring.

Foundation Profile

The Foundation Profile extends the CDC to include almost all of the core Java 2 Version 1.3 core libraries. As its name suggests, it is intended to be used as the basis for most of the other CDC profiles.

Personal Basis and Personal Profiles

The Personal Basis Profile adds basic user interface functionality to the Foundation Profile. It is intended to be used on devices that have an unsophisticated user interface capability, and it therefore does not allow more than one window to be active at any time. Platforms that can support a more complex user interface will use the Personal Profile instead. At the time of writing, both these profiles are in the process of being specified.

RMI Profile

The RMI Profile adds the J2SE Remote Method Invocation libraries to the Foundation Profile. Only the client side of this API is supported.

Game Profile

The Game Profile, which is still in the process of being defined, will provide a platform for writing games software on CDC devices. At the time of writing, it is not certain whether this profile will be derived from the Foundation Profile or based directly on CDC.