ASP.NET Mobile for Japanese Phones (DoCoMo/i-mode, SoftBank, KDDI AU)
In the Japanese market the mobile web is one of the most important web mediums for companies to target. Nearly every site has a mobile version that works with the major mobile carriers phone technologies. When developing for the Japanese market, it is important to develop a mobile site in addition to a full site, as some users only have phones and not a computer.
This article will cover how to properly configure ASP.NET Mobile 2.0 to work with the majority of Japanese mobile phones in the market.
Download KDDI .Browser File Here -- These browsercaps are imperfect (I haven't reviewed each and every setting), but will ensure that Japanese text renders properly in the browser).
ASP.NET Mobile provides the ability to change rendering of a web page based on the browser accessing the site. Because of the wide varieties of HTML supported in the Japanese mobile market (DoCoMo/imode perfers cHTML and XHTML whereas SoftBank prefers HDML). In addition, different browsers support different encodings (some use UTF-8, others use shift_js).
To support all of these, ASP.NET uses browser caps. Most of the browser caps you need to the Japanese market are included in .NET 2.0. Unfortunately, KDDI browsers seem to lack a browser caps file in ASP.NET. To resolve this issue, read on to find how to install a browser caps file into ASP.NET.
Installing a .browser file
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Copy the browser file into the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\Browsers folder.
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Open a command prompt and change path to C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727.
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Run aspnet_regbrowsers.exe /i to recompile the browser files into an assembly and add it to the GAC.
At this point your ASP.NET sites should be compatible with the majority of Japanese phones on the market.