HTTP::BrowserDetect - Determine the Web browser, version, and platform from an HTTP user agent string
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);
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.
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.
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.
Returns the integer portion of the browser version. If passed a parameter, returns true if it equals the browser major version.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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, Mac, Mac OS X, Win3x, OS2, Unix, Linux
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)
Returns one of the following strings, or undef.
Netscape, MSIE, WebTV, AOL Browser, Opera, Mosaic, Lynx
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.
The following methods are available, each returning a true or false value.
wap audrey iopener palm avantgo blackberry
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
Lee Semel, lee@semel.net
Thanks to Leonardo Herrera for additional contributions
"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 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.
2 POD Errors
The following errors were encountered while parsing the POD:
'=item' outside of any '=over'
You forgot a '=back' before '=head1'
To install HTTP::BrowserDetect, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm HTTP::BrowserDetect
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install HTTP::BrowserDetect
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.