Browser Detection

xianzai

Hi,

I've got a project underway, I won't go into boring details, but I will have a webpage displayed on a PDA, and on a normal computer.

I was wondering if there is any way that when the index.php page is loaded, I can determine whether or not the page is being viewed from a PDA, or from a normal computer.

Once I have determined this, I can then re-direct the user to the correct page.

Forgive me if this is really easy, but I am new to PHP. Thank you in anticipation of your help :-)

Matt

erikwebb

PHP is a server-side language. PHP does not have the abilities to test for a browser. You need to use a client-side language such as JavaScript or (God forbid) VBScript to determine this.

rpanning

If your useing Apache I think there is a way of doing this in the config file. I've never done this so I don't know for sure. Take a look here, http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mod_setenvif.html#browsermatch

erikwebb

Good point. There is a good possibly Apache (or IIS) can redirect the user based on the browsing agent, but, in a purely PHP method, I do not think that one exists.

pjleonhardt

Originally posted by erikwebb
PHP is a server-side language. PHP does not have the abilities to test for a browser. You need to use a client-side language such as JavaScript or (God forbid) VBScript to determine this.

no?

http://us4.php.net/manual/en/function.get-browser.php

although, whether or not the site is being viewed on a PDA or not im not sure whether or not you can detect with PHP though.. An easy solution to this is on your index page have a link for PDA's and a Link for computers.

erikwebb

I'm not surprised I was wrong. That seems to happen a lot. 😃 Anyways, it would probably be a better idea to use JavaScript anyway just to limit the (although almost negligible) server bandwidth required for such a simple operation.

Moonglobe

try taking a look at $_SERVER['USER_AGENT'] 🙂

pyro

Originally posted by erikwebb
Anyways, it would probably be a better idea to use JavaScript anyway

What about the 13% of users who do not have JavaScript enabled?

erikwebb

I guess I can't win with this one. 🙁 Just use PHP, haha! After all, that's why we're all here.