dmolsen/detector

Combined browser- & feature-detection for your app

Detector v0.9.5

Detector is a simple, PHP- and JavaScript-based browser- and feature-detection library that can adapt to new devices & browsers on its own without the need to pull from a central database of browser information., _(*1)

Detector dynamically creates profiles using a browser's (mainly) unique user-agent string as a key. Using Modernizr it records the HTML5 & CSS3 features a requesting browser may or may not support. ua-parser-php is used to collect and record any useful information (like OS or device name) the user-agent string may contain., _(*2)

With Detector a developer can serve the appropriate markup, stylesheets, and JavaScript to a requesting browser without being completely dependent on a front-end-only resource loader nor a browser-detection library being up-to-date., _(*3)

The server-side portion of Detector is based upon modernizr-server by James Pearce (@jamespearce) and the browser-detection library ua-parser-php. Detector utilizes Modernizr for its client-side, feature-detection support., _(*4)

Demo of Detector

A very simple demo of Detector is available for testing. It's also now in production on the West Virginia University home page., _(*5)

Features

The following features are as of v0.8.5 of Detector:, _(*6)

• stores features detected with Modernizr 2.6.1 (list) and browser & device information detected with ua-parser-php (based on ua-parser) on the server as part of a browser profile for easy retrieval
• uses the user agent string as a unique key for looking up information (e.g. one profile per user agent)
• majority of tests are run only once per unique user agent string so only one user is ever tested & redirected
• add your own feature tests and store the results using Modernizr's addTest() API
• tests can be created that run once per user agent, once per session, or on every request
• version your browser profiles so you can force them to be recreated after adding new tests
• easily organize browsers into families based on a mix of supported features & device information
• browser & bots that don't use JavaScript or cookies can still use your site using a default browser profile
• provide default families for search engines and browsers that don't support javascript or cookies so your best side is always showing
• give your mobile users a "desktop" view via family switching (assuming you use a templating system)
• push feature information to the browser via CSS classes and/or a JavaScript object a la Modernizr
• use with a templating system like Mustache to create a RESS system
• confidence checks that help determine if data collected on a per UA basis is correct

Tutorials

• Adding & Using Detector With Your Application
• Creating Browser Groupings
• Creating Feature Tests for Detector
• Pushing Detector Data to the Browser
• Templating with Detector & Mustache

More Information

• How Detector Works
• RESS, Server-Side Feature-Detection and the Evolution of Responsive Web Design
• Why I Created Detector

Credits

First and foremost, thanks to James Pearce (@jamespearce) for putting together modernizr-server and giving me a great base to work from. I also took some of the copy from his README and used it in the section, "Adding Detector to Your Application." Also, thanks to the guys behind Modernizr for giving developers a great lib as well as the the ability to expand Modernizr via Modernizr.addTest(). Finally, thanks to Bryan Rieger (@bryanrieger) & Stephanie Rieger (@stephanierieger) of Yiibu and Luke Wroblewski (@lukew) for providing inspiration via Profile and RESS respectively., _(*7)