trusty (3) HTTP::BrowserDetect.3pm.gz
NAME
HTTP::BrowserDetect - Determine Web browser, version, and platform from an HTTP user agent string
VERSION
version 1.68
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) {
...;
}
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>.
CONSTRUCTOR AND STARTUP
new()
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()
Returns the value of the user agent string.
Calling this method with a parameter has now been deprecated and this feature will be removed in an
upcoming release.
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:
android, audrey, blackberry, dsi, iopener, ipad, iphone, ipod, kindle, n3ds, palm, ps3, psp, wap, webos.
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:
Android, Audrey, BlackBerry, Nintendo DSi, iopener, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Amazon Kindle, Nintendo 3DS,
Palm, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony Playstation Portable, WAP capable phone, webOS. Also Windows-based
smartphones will output various different names like HTC T7575. Returns "undef" if this is not a device
or if no device name can be detected.
browser_properties()
Returns a list of the browser properties, that is, all of the tests that passed for the provided
user_agent string. Operating systems, devices, browser names, mobile and robots are all browser
properties.
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 Engine
engine_string()
Returns one of the following:
Gecko, KHTML, Trident, 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 and Trident. Returns "undef" for all other engines. The output is simply "engine_major" added with
"engine_minor".
engine_major()
Returns the major version number of the rendering engine. Currently this only returns a version number
for Gecko and Trident. 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 and Trident. 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
win8
win8_0 win8_1
wince
winphone
winphone7 winphone7_5 winphone8
dotnet()
firefoxos()
mac()
mac68k macppc macosx ios
os2()
rimtabletos()
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, Win8,
Win8.1, Windows Phone, Mac, Mac OS X, iOS, Win3x, OS2, Unix, Linux,
Firefox OS, Playstation 3 GameOS, Playstation Portable GameOS,
RIM Tablet OS
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 ie9 ie10 ie11
ie_compat_mode
The ie_compat_mode is used to determine if the IE user agent is for the compatibility mode view, in which
case the real version of IE is higher than that detected. The true version of IE can be inferred from the
version of Trident in the engine_version method.
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
realplayer_browser
The realplayer method above tests for the presence of either the RealPlayer plug-in "(r1 " or the browser
"RealPlayer". To preserve "bugwards compatibility" and prevent false reporting, browser_string calls this
method which ignores the "(r1 " plug-in signature.
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, BlackBerry.
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
dsi
iopener
iphone
ipod
ipad
kindle
n3ds
obigo
palm
webos
wap
psp
ps3
mobile()
Returns true if the browser appears to belong to a handheld device.
tablet()
Returns true if the browser appears to belong to a tablet 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.
ahrefs
altavista
askjeeves
baidu
facebook
getright
google
googleadsbot
googleadsense
googlemobile
infoseek
linkexchange
lwp
lycos
msn (same as bing)
puf
slurp
webcrawler
wget
yahoo
yandex
yandeximages
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:
cho45
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
Olivier Bilodeau
Yoshiki Kurihara
Paul Findlay
Uwe Voelker
Douglas Christopher Wilson
John Oatis
Atsushi Kato
Ronald J. Kimball
Bill Rhodes
Thom Blake
Aran Deltac
yeahoffline
David Ihnen
Hao Wu
Perlover
TO DO
The "_engine()" method currently only handles Gecko and Trident. It needs to be expanded to handle other
rendering engines.
POD coverage is also not 100%.
SEE ALSO
"Browser ID (User-Agent) Strings", <http://www.zytrax.com/tech/web/browser_ids.htm> HTML::ParseBrowser.
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>
• Reporting Issues
<https://github.com/oalders/http-browserdetect/issues>
• AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
<http://annocpan.org/dist/HTTP-BrowserDetect>
• CPAN Ratings
<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/HTTP-BrowserDetect>
• Search CPAN
<https://metacpan.org/module/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
request, 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.json so that the test coverage includes any changes you have made. Please contact me if you
have any questions.
This distribution uses Dist::Zilla. If you're not familiar with this module, please see
<https://github.com/oalders/http-browserdetect/issues/5> for some helpful tips to get you started.
AUTHORS
• Lee Semel <lee@semel.net> • Peter Walsham • Olaf Alders <olaf@wundercounter.com> (current maintainer)
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2013 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.