HTTP::BrowserDetect(3)User Contributed Perl DocumentatioHTTP::BrowserDetect(3)NAMEHTTP::BrowserDetect - Determine Web browser, version, and platform from
an HTTP user agent string
VERSION
version 1.21
SYNOPSIS
use HTTP::BrowserDetect;
my $browser = HTTP::BrowserDetect->new($user_agent_string);
# Detect operating system
if ($browser->windows) {
if ($browser->winnt) ...
if ($browser->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.
INSTALLATION
In most cases, you can just issue the following commands:
perl Build.PL
./Build
./Build test
./Build install
Please see the documentation for Module::Build if you have questions
about installing to custom locations etc.
CONSTRUCTOR AND STARTUPnew()
HTTP::BrowserDetect->new( $user_agent_string )
The constructor may be called with a user agent string specified.
Otherwise, it will use the value specified by $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'},
which is set by the web server when calling a CGI script.
You may also use a non-object-oriented interface. For each method, you
may call HTTP::BrowserDetect::method_name(). You will then be working
with a default HTTP::BrowserDetect object that is created behind the
scenes.
SUBROUTINES/METHODS
user_agent($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.
country()
Returns the country string as it may be found in the user agent string.
This will be in the form of an upper case 2 character code. ie: US, DE,
etc
language()
Returns the language string as it is found in the user agent string.
This will be in the form of an upper case 2 character code. ie: EN, DE,
etc
device()
Returns the method name of the actual hardware, if it can be detected.
Currently returns one of: blackberry, webos, iphone, ipod or ipad
Returns UNDEF if no hardware can be detected
device_name()
Returns a human formatted version of the hardware device name. These
names are subject to change and are really meant for display purposes.
You should use the device() method in your logic. Returns one of:
BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod or iPad. Returns UNDEF if no hardware can be
detected.
Detecting Browser Version
Please note that that the version(), major() and minor() methods have
been superceded as of release 1.07 of this module. They are not yet
deprecated, but should be replaced with public_version(),
public_major() and public_minor() in new development.
The reasoning behind this is that version() method will, in the case of
Safari, return the Safari/XXX numbers even when Version/XXX numbers are
present in the UserAgent string. Because this behaviour has been in
place for so long, some clients may have come to rely upon it. So, it
has been retained in the interest of "bugwards compatibility", but in
almost all cases, the numbers returned by public_version(),
public_major() and public_minor() will be what you are looking for.
public_version()
Returns the browser version as a floating-point number.
public_major()
Returns the integer portion of the browser version.
public_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.
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($version)
Returns the version as a floating-point number. If passed a parameter,
returns true if it is equal to the version specified by the user agent
string.
major($major)
Returns the integer portion of the browser version. If passed a
parameter, returns true if it equals the browser major version.
minor($minor)
Returns the decimal portion of the browser version as a floating-point
number less than 1. For example, if the version is 4.05, this method
returns .05; if the version is 4.5, this method returns .5. This is a
change in behavior from previous versions of this module, which
returned a string.
If passed a parameter, returns true if equals the minor version.
On occasion a version may have more than one decimal point, such as
'Wget/1.4.5'. The minor version does not include the second decimal
point, or any further digits or decimals.
beta($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 Rendering Engineengine_string()
Returns one of the following:
Gecko, KHTML, MSIE, NetFront
Returns undef if no string can be found.
engine_version()
Returns the version number of the rendering engine. Currently this only
returns a version number for Gecko. Returns undef for all other
engines.
engine_major()
Returns the major version number of the rendering engine. Currently
this only returns a version number for Gecko. Returns undef for all
other engines.
engine_minor()
Returns the minor version number of the rendering engine. Currently
this only returns a version number for Gecko. Returns undef for all
other engines.
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 win7
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()ps3gameos()pspgameos()
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, Win7, Mac, Mac OS X,
Win3x, OS2, Unix, Linux, Playstation 3 GameOS, Playstation Portable GameOS
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.
aol aol3 aol4 aol5 aol6
chrome
curl
emacs
firefox
gecko
icab
ie ie3 ie4 ie4up ie5 ie55 ie6 ie7 ie8
java
konqueror
lotusnotes
lynx links elinks
mobile_safari
mosaic
mozilla
neoplanet neoplanet2
netfront
netscape nav2 nav3 nav4 nav4up nav45 nav45up navgold nav6 nav6up
opera opera3 opera4 opera5 opera6 opera7
realplayer
safari
staroffice
webtv
Netscape 6, even though its called six, in the User-Agent string has
version number 5. The nav6 and nav6up methods correctly handle this
quirk. The Firefox test correctly detects the older-named versions of
the browser (Phoenix, Firebird).
browser_string()
Returns undef on failure. Otherwise returns one of the following:
Netscape, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, MSIE, WebTV, AOL Browser, Opera,
Mosaic, Lynx, Links, ELinks, RealPlayer, IceWeasel, curl, puf,
NetFront, Mobile Safari
gecko_version()
If a Gecko rendering engine is used (as in Mozilla or Firefox), 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.
android
audrey
avantgo
blackberry
iopener
iphone
ipod
ipad
kindle
palm
webos
wap
psp
ps3
mobile()
Returns true if the browser appears to belong to a handheld device.
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.
altavista
facebook
getright
google
googlemobile
infoseek
linkexchange
lwp
lycos
msn (same as bing)
puf
slurp
webcrawler
wget
yahoo
CREDITS
Lee Semel, lee@semel.net (Original Author)
Peter Walsham (co-maintainer)
Olaf Alders, "olaf at wundercounter.com" (co-maintainer)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to the following for their contributions:
Leonardo Herrera
Denis F. Latypoff
merlynkline
Simon Waters
Toni Cebrin
Florian Merges
david.hilton.p
Steve Purkis
Andrew McGregor
Robin Smidsrod
Richard Noble
Josh Ritter
Mike Clarke
Marc Sebastian Pelzer
Alexey Surikov
Maros Kollar
Jay Rifkin
Luke Saunders
Jacob Rask
Heiko Weber
Jon Jensen
Jesse Thompson
Graham Barr
Enrico Sorcinelli
TO DO
The _engine() method currently only handles Gecko. It needs to be
expanded to handle other rendering engines.
POD coverage is also not 100%.
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
Safari "Historical User Agent strings",
http://developer.apple.com/internet/safari/uamatrix.html (now gone,
retrieved 2007-06-20)
"Safari Agent Strings",
http://homepage.mac.com/jprince/designSandbox/web/safari-agents/
perl(1), HTTP::Headers, HTTP::Headers::UserAgent.
SUPPORT
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc HTTP::BrowserDetect
You can also look for information at:
· GitHub Source Repository
http://github.com/oalders/http-browserdetect
<http://github.com/oalders/http-browserdetect>
· RT: CPAN's request tracker
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=HTTP-BrowserDetect
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=HTTP-BrowserDetect>
· AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
http://annocpan.org/dist/HTTP-BrowserDetect
<http://annocpan.org/dist/HTTP-BrowserDetect>
· CPAN Ratings
http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/HTTP-BrowserDetect
<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/HTTP-BrowserDetect>
· Search CPAN
http://search.cpan.org/dist/HTTP-BrowserDetect/
<http://search.cpan.org/dist/HTTP-BrowserDetect/>
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
The biggest limitation at this point is the test suite, which really
needs to have many more UserAgent strings to test against.
CONTRIBUTING
Patches are certainly welcome, with many thanks for the excellent
contributions which have already been received. The preferred method of
patching would be to fork the GitHub repo and then send me a pull
requests, but plain old patch files are also welcome.
If you're able to add test cases, this will speed up the time to
release your changes. Just edit t/useragents.yaml so that the test
coverage includes any changes you have made. Please contact me if you
have any questions.
AUTHORS
· Lee Semel <lee@semel.net>
· Peter Walsham
· Olaf Alders <olaf@wundercounter.com> (current maintainer)
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2010 by Lee Semel.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
perl v5.14.1 2011-06-29 HTTP::BrowserDetect(3)
