HTTP::BrowserDetect(3pm)

1BrowserDetect(3)      User Contributed Perl Documentation     BrowserDetect(3)
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NAME

6       HTTP::BrowserDetect - Determine the Web browser, version, and platform
7       from an HTTP user agent string
8

SYNOPSIS

10           use HTTP::BrowserDetect;
11
12           my $browser = new HTTP::BrowserDetect($user_agent_string);
13
14           # Detect operating system
15           if ($browser->windows) {
16             if ($browser->winnt) ...
17             if ($brorwser->win95) ...
18           }
19           print $browser->mac;
20
21           # Detect browser vendor and version
22           print $browser->netscape;
23           print $browser->ie;
24           if (browser->major(4)) {
25               if ($browser->minor() > .5) {
26                   ...
27               }
28           }
29           if ($browser->version() > 4) {
30             ...;
31           }
32
33           # Process a different user agent string
34           $browser->user_agent($another_user_agent_string);
35

DESCRIPTION

37       The HTTP::BrowserDetect object does a number of tests on an HTTP user
38       agent string.  The results of these tests are available via methods of
39       the object.
40
41       This module is based upon the JavaScript browser detection code avail‐
42       able at http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/snif‐
43       fer/browser_type.html.
44
45       CREATING A NEW BROWSER DETECT OBJECT AND SETTING THE USER AGENT STRING
46
47       new HTTP::BrowserDetect($user_agent_string)
48           The constructor may be called with a user agent string specified.
49           Otherwise, it will use the value specified by
50           $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'}, which is set by the web server when call‐
51           ing a CGI script.
52
53           You may also use a non-object-oriented interface.  For each method,
54           you may call HTTP::BrowserDetect::method_name().  You will then be
55           working with a default HTTP::BrowserDetect object that is created
56           behind the scenes.
57
58       user_agent($user_agent_string)
59           Returns the value of the user agent string.  When called with a
60           parameter, it resets the user agent and reperforms all tests on the
61           string.  This way you can process a series of user agent strings
62           (from a log file, perhaps) without creating a new HTTP::BrowserDe‐
63           tect object each time.
64
65       DETECTING BROWSER VERSION
66
67       major($major)
68           Returns the integer portion of the browser version.  If passed a
69           parameter, returns true if it equals the browser major version.
70
71       minor($minor)
72           Returns the decimal portion of the browser version as a floating-
73           point number less than 1.  For example, if the version is 4.05,
74           this method returns .05; if the version is 4.5, this method returns
75           .5.  This is a change in behavior from previous versions of this
76           module, which returned a string.
77
78           If passed a parameter, returns true if equals the minor version.
79
80           On occasion a version may have more than one decimal point, such as
81           'Wget/1.4.5'. The minor version does not include the second decimal
82           point, or any further digits or decimals.
83
84       version($version)
85           Returns the version as a floating-point number.  If passed a param‐
86           eter, returns true if it is equal to the version specified by the
87           user agent string.
88
89       beta($beta)
90           Returns any the beta version, consisting of any non-numeric charac‐
91           ters after the version number.  For instance, if the user agent
92           string is 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0b2; Windows NT)',
93           returns 'b2'.  If passed a parameter, returns true if equal to the
94           beta version.  If the beta starts with a dot, it is thrown away.
95
96       DETECTING OS PLATFORM AND VERSION
97
98       The following methods are available, each returning a true or false
99       value.  Some methods also test for the operating system version.  The
100       indentations below show the hierarchy of tests (for example, win2k is
101       considered a type of winnt, which is a type of win32)
102
103         windows
104           win16 win3x win31
105           win32
106               winme win95 win98
107               winnt
108                   win2k winxp
109         dotnet
110
111         mac
112           mac68k macppc macosx
113
114         os2
115
116         unix
117           sun sun4 sun5 suni86 irix irix5 irix6 hpux hpux9 hpux10
118           aix aix1 aix2 aix3 aix4 linux sco unixware mpras reliant
119           dec sinix freebsd bsd
120
121         vms
122
123         amiga
124
125       It may not be possibile to detect Win98 in Netscape 4.x and earlier.
126       On Opera 3.0, the userAgent string includes "Windows 95/NT4" on all
127       Win32, so you can't distinguish between Win95 and WinNT.
128
129       os_string()
130           Returns one of the following strings, or undef.  This method exists
131           solely for compatibility with the HTTP::Headers::UserAgent module.
132
133             Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2K, WinXP, Mac, Mac OS X, Win3x, OS2, Unix, Linux
134
135       DETECTING BROWSER VENDOR
136
137       The following methods are available, each returning a true or false
138       value.  Some methods also test for the browser version, saving you from
139       checking the version separately.
140
141         netscape nav2 nav3 nav4 nav4up nav45 nav45up navgold nav6 nav6up
142         gecko
143         mozilla
144         firefox
145         safari
146         ie ie3 ie4 ie4up ie5 ie55 ie6
147         neoplanet neoplanet2
148         mosaic
149         aol aol3 aol4 aol5 aol6
150         webtv
151         opera opera3 opera4 opera5 opera6 opera7
152         lynx links
153         emacs
154         staroffice
155         lotusnotes
156         icab
157         konqueror
158         java
159         curl
160
161       Netscape 6, even though its called six, in the userAgent string has
162       version number 5.  The nav6 and nav6up methods correctly handle this
163       quirk.  The firefox text correctly detects the older-named versions of
164       the browser (Phoenix, Firebird)
165
166       browser_string()
167           Returns one of the following strings, or undef.
168
169           Netscape, MSIE, WebTV, AOL Browser, Opera, Mosaic, Lynx
170
171       gecko_version()
172           If a Gecko rendering engine is used (as in Mozilla or Firebird),
173           returns the version of the renderer (e.g. 1.3a, 1.7, 1.8) This
174           might be more useful than the particular browser name or version
175           when correcting for quirks in different versions of this rendering
176           engine.  If no Gecko browser is being used, or the version number
177           can't be detected, returns undef.
178
179       DETECTING OTHER DEVICES
180
181       The following methods are available, each returning a true or false
182       value.
183
184         wap
185         audrey
186         iopener
187         palm
188         avantgo
189         blackberry
190
191       DETECTING ROBOTS
192

robot()

194Returns true if the user agent appears to be a robot, spider, crawler, or
195other automated Web client.
196
197The following additional methods are available, each returning a true or false
198value.  This is by no means a complete list of robots that exist on the Web.
199
200  wget
201  getright
202  yahoo
203  altavista
204  lycos
205  infoseek
206  lwp
207  webcrawler
208  linkexchange
209  slurp
210  google
211

AUTHOR

213       Lee Semel, lee@semel.net
214
215       Thanks to Leonardo Herrera for additional contributions
216

COPYRIGHT

227       Copyright 1999-2004 Lee Semel.  All rights reserved.  This program is
228       free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
229       terms as Perl itself.
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233perl v5.8.8                       2004-06-22                  BrowserDetect(3)

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

robot()

AUTHOR

SEE ALSO

COPYRIGHT