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HTTP::BrowserDetect.3pm

NAME

HTTP::BrowserDetect - Determine the Web browser, version, and platform from an HTTP user agent string

SYNOPSIS

     use HTTP::BrowserDetect;
 
     my $browser = new HTTP::BrowserDetect($user_agent_string);
 
     # Detect operating system
     if ($browser->windows) {
       if ($browser->winnt) ...
       if ($brorwser->win95) ...
     }
     print $browser->mac;
 
     # Detect browser vendor and version
     print $browser->netscape;
     print $browser->ie;
     if (browser->major(4)) {
         if ($browser->minor() > .5) {
             ...
         }
     }
     if ($browser->version() > 4) {
       ...;
     }
     
     # Process a different user agent string
     $browser->user_agent($another_user_agent_string);
 
 

DESCRIPTION

The HTTP::BrowserDetect object does a number of tests on an HTTP user agent string. The results of these tests are available via methods of the object.

This module is based upon the JavaScript browser detection code available at http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/sniffer/browser_type.html.

CREATING A NEW BROWSER DETECT OBJECT AND SETTING THE USER AGENT STRING

new HTTP::BrowserDetect($user_agent_string)

The constructor may be called with a user agent string specified. Otherwise, it will use the value specified by $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'}, which is set by the web server when calling a CGI script.

You may also use a non-object-oriented interface. For each method, you may call HTTP::BrowserDetect::method_name(). You will then be working with a default HTTP::BrowserDetect object that is created behind the scenes.

user_agent($user_agent_string)

Returns the value of the user agent string. When called with a parameter, it resets the user agent and reperforms all tests on the string. This way you can process a series of user agent strings (from a log file, perhaps) without creating a new HTTP::BrowserDetect object each time.

DETECTING BROWSER VERSION

major($major)

Returns the integer portion of the browser version. If passed a parameter, returns true if it equals the browser major version.

minor($minor)

Returns the decimal portion of the browser version as a floating-point number less than 1. For example, if the version is 4.05, this method returns .05; if the version is 4.5, this method returns .5. This is a change in behavior from previous versions of this module, which returned a string.

If passed a parameter, returns true if equals the minor version.

On occasion a version may have more than one decimal point, such as 'Wget/1.4.5'. The minor version does not include the second decimal point, or any further digits or decimals.

version($version)

Returns the version as a floating-point number. If passed a parameter, returns true if it is equal to the version specified by the user agent string.

beta($beta)

Returns any the beta version, consisting of any non-numeric characters after the version number. For instance, if the user agent string is 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0b2; Windows NT)', returns 'b2'. If passed a parameter, returns true if equal to the beta version. If the beta starts with a dot, it is thrown away.

DETECTING OS PLATFORM AND VERSION

The following methods are available, each returning a true or false value. Some methods also test for the operating system version. The indentations below show the hierarchy of tests (for example, win2k is considered a type of winnt, which is a type of win32)

   windows 
     win16 win3x win31  
     win32 
         winme win95 win98
         winnt
             win2k winxp win2k3 winvista
   dotnet
   
   mac 
     mac68k macppc macosx
   
   os2
   
   unix 
     sun sun4 sun5 suni86 irix irix5 irix6 hpux hpux9 hpux10 
     aix aix1 aix2 aix3 aix4 linux sco unixware mpras reliant 
     dec sinix freebsd bsd
   
   vms
 
   amiga
 
 

It may not be possibile to detect Win98 in Netscape 4.x and earlier. On Opera 3.0, the userAgent string includes ``Windows 95/NT4'' on all Win32, so you can't distinguish between Win95 and WinNT.

os_string()

Returns one of the following strings, or undef. This method exists solely for compatibility with the HTTP::Headers::UserAgent module.

   Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2K, WinXP, Win2K3, WinVista, Mac, Mac OS X, Win3x, OS2, Unix, Linux
 
 

DETECTING BROWSER VENDOR

The following methods are available, each returning a true or false value. Some methods also test for the browser version, saving you from checking the version separately.

   netscape nav2 nav3 nav4 nav4up nav45 nav45up navgold nav6 nav6up
   gecko 
   mozilla
   firefox 
   safari
   ie ie3 ie4 ie4up ie5 ie55 ie6
   neoplanet neoplanet2 
   mosaic
   aol aol3 aol4 aol5 aol6
   webtv
   opera opera3 opera4 opera5 opera6 opera7
   lynx links
   emacs
   staroffice
   lotusnotes
   icab
   konqueror
   java
   curl
 
 

Netscape 6, even though its called six, in the userAgent string has version number 5. The nav6 and nav6up methods correctly handle this quirk. The firefox text correctly detects the older-named versions of the browser (Phoenix, Firebird)

browser_string()

Returns one of the following strings, or undef.

Netscape, MSIE, WebTV, AOL Browser, Opera, Mosaic, Lynx

gecko_version()

If a Gecko rendering engine is used (as in Mozilla or Firebird), returns the version of the renderer (e.g. 1.3a, 1.7, 1.8) This might be more useful than the particular browser name or version when correcting for quirks in different versions of this rendering engine. If no Gecko browser is being used, or the version number can't be detected, returns undef.

DETECTING OTHER DEVICES

The following methods are available, each returning a true or false value.

   wap
   audrey
   iopener
   palm
   avantgo
   blackberry
 
 

DETECTING ROBOTS

robot()

Returns true if the user agent appears to be a robot, spider, crawler, or other automated Web client.

The following additional methods are available, each returning a true or false value. This is by no means a complete list of robots that exist on the Web.

   wget
   getright
   yahoo 
   altavista 
   lycos 
   infoseek 
   lwp
   webcrawler 
   linkexchange 
   slurp 
   google
 
 

AUTHOR

Lee Semel, lee@semel.net

Thanks to Leonardo Herrera for additional contributions

SEE ALSO

``The Ultimate JavaScript Client Sniffer, Version 3.0'', http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/sniffer/browser_type.html.

``Browser ID (User-Agent) Strings'' http://www.zytrax.com/tech/web/browser_ids.htm

perl(1), HTTP::Headers, HTTP::Headers::UserAgent.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1999-2004 Lee Semel. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

POD ERRORS

Hey! The above document had some coding errors, which are explained below:

Around line 701:

'=item' outside of any '=over'

Around line 722:

You forgot a '=back' before '=head1'