OMA External Functionality Interface V1.1

The EFI enabler defines the means through which components or entities with embedded applications that execute outside of the Wireless Application Environment (WAE) user agent, such as that in OMA Browsing V2.2 or other user agents, and conform to the external functionality requirements, can be utilised via these user agents. Such external functionality may be built-in to, or connected to, a mobile terminal terminal supporting these user agents and the connection can be permanent or temporary.

The EFI provides a convenient and uniform way to facilitate the connection between the application, comprising markup, e.g. XHTMLMP or WML, and/or script, e.g. ESMP or WMLScript, running in a user agent, and new functionality exposed to and usable by the user agent via the EFI. The EFI specifications consists of the Framework, the Process specification and a set of Class Specifications, each one specific to the given application area.

The EFI Framework defines the general behaviour of EFI implementation in the terminal while detailed requirements for the class are provided in individual Class Specification documents. The Process specification facilitates the development of Class Specifications by defining steps that should be taken in order to achieve the quality Class Specification.

The EFI Application Interface (EFI AI) is a high level interface that shall suit a number of different applications. Various external functions are grouped in classes that offer common functionality across different makes and versions of terminals and external functionality entities. The EFI Framework provides an extensible set of interfaces that can support services, including the ability to query for the particular service as well as the ability to capture the functionality that is specific to the given device or software installed. However, there is no functionality to dynamically add new services so there is no general service discovery mechanism.