NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

use HTTP::BrowserDetect;
  
my $browser = new HTTP::BrowserDetect($user_agent_string);
if ($browser->windows) {
  if ($browser->winnt) ...
  if ($brorwser->win95) ...
}

print $browser->netscape;
if (browser->major(4)) {
  ...;
}
if (browser->minor(5)) {
  ...;
}

$browser->user_agent($another_user_agent_string);
print $browser->mac;
print $browser->ie;
if ($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://developer.netscape.com/docs/examples/javascript/browser_type.html.

CREATING A NEW BROWSER DETECT OBJECT AND SETTING THE USER AGENT STRING

new HTTP::BrowserDetect($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.

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.

DETECTING BROWSER VERSION

major($major)

Returns the portion of the browser version up to the first decimal point as a string. If passed a parameter, returns true if it equals the major version specified by the user agent string.

minor($minor)

Returns the numeric portion of the browser after first decimal point as a string. If passed a parameter, returns true if it equals the minor version specified by the user agent string. 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 numerically equal to the version specified by the user agent string.

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.

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.

windows win16 win3x win31 win95 win98 winnt win32 win2k
mac mac68k macppc
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

os_string()

Returns one of the following strings, or undef. These are the same set of strings returned by the HTTP::Headers::UserAgent module.

Win95, Win98, WinNT, Mac, Win3x, OS2, Unix, Linux

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.

mosaic
netscape nav2 nav3 nav4 nav4up nav45 nav5 navgold
ie ie3 ie4 ie4up ie5 ie55
aol aol3 
neoplanet neoplanet2 
webtv
opera
lynx
emacs
staroffice
lotusnotes
icab
konqueror
java

browser_string()

Returns one of the following strings, or undef.

Netscape, MSIE, WebTV, AOL Browser, Opera, Mosaic, Lynx

DETECTING ROBOTS

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.

wget
getright
yahoo 
altavista 
lycos 
infoseek 
lwp
webcrawler 
linkexchange 
slurp 
google

AUTHOR

Lee Semel, lee@semel.net

SEE ALSO

perl(1).

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1999-2000 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.