Mobipocket Developer Center - Cross-platform feature support

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updated: 2008-02-15

Mobipocket Reader is available on two device families. One uses a C++ code base, the other on a Java code base. Content developers should strive to make content that will work optimally on both. The table below gives an overview of all features of the Mobipocket file format and their support across various platforms. The last column (Common C++/Java standard) gives the planned evolution of the file format where most but not all features will be supported on all platforms. Content developers should follow the following rules:

Use preferably features available on all platforms today.
If not possible, use features that are planned to be supported on both platforms in the future.
If using features marked as "tentative" in the Common C++/Java standard, make sure your content works even if the features are not supported.
If using features that are not planned to be supported in the Common C++/Java standard, make sure they are used only in a clearly identified "advanced" section of your book and that the book is usable without them.

Feature	C++ (Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, PC)	Java (Blackberry, iLiad, Bookeen)	Common C++/Java standard (V1.0)
Core format features
DOC compression	X	X	X
Advanced compression	X	X	X
Support for file format versions 1 to 7	X	X	X
DRM encryption	X	X	X
Content encryption	X	X	X
Password encryption	X	X	(deprecated)
Western encoding (Windows 1252)	X	X	X
UNICODE UTF8 encoding	X	X	X
Metadata (V1 and V2)	X	X	X
HTML rendering features
Basic HTML tags (P, DIV, B, I, …	X	X	X
Bullet lists	X	X	X
Numbered lists	X	X	X
First line indent, positive and negative	X	X	X
GIF images	X	X	X
BMP images	X	X	X
JPEG images	X	X	X
Image alignment options	X	X	X
losrc/src/hisrc image support	X	X	X
Tables	X	X	X
Nested tables
Additional rendering features
High-resolution covers	X	X	X
Hyphenation	X		X
Frames	X		(tentative)
HTML forms	X
Navigation features
Hyperlinks	X	X	X
Inter-book links	X
Guide links	X	X	X
Annotations
Bookmarks	X	X	X
Annotations	X	X	X
Highlights	X	X	X
Drawings	X
Custom links	X
Indexing features
Indexes using western encoding (Windows 1252)	X	X	X
Indexes using UNICODE UTF8 encoding	X	X	X
SQL queries	X
Index view	X	X (not all e-ink devices yet)	X
Filtered (keyword) index view	X		X
SQL index view	X
Index formatting	X		(tentative)
Index view with disinflection and spell checking	X		(tentative)
Wildcard search	X		(tentative)
Linguistic features
Disinflection 1 (using infl attribute)	X	X	X
Disinflection 2 (using <idx:infl> tag)	X	X	X
Spell checking (English, German, Spanish, Italian)	X		(tentative)
Dictionary lookup
Dictionary lookup	X	X	X
Multi-dictionary lookup	X	X	X
Programming
Document Object Model (1) Single onclick function call with constant parameters for the following functions: index_search filtered_index_search cond_index_search dial history.back history.forward	X	supported: index_search (no parameters) dial history.back history.forward index_search only works if the index view is implemented. dial only works if the device is a phone.	X
Document Object Model (2) all other supported Javascript functions	X
Full Javascript	X
ASP page generation	X
RW database	X
Drug Interaction Module	X