Apple

On 15 Oct 2014, at 11:25 am, David Holt <email@hidden> wrote:

We're beginning to tackle just this problem. One helpful site is http://www.whatismybrowser.com and has an API available, but I'm not sure that it does anything different than you could do in WO. We use it in a support context to tell people whether they are running a browser considered out of date and gives instructions for how to update, turn on _javascript_ etc. I've realized since, though that it is quite laptop/desktop centric since a quick download will not be the solution to upgrade a browser on mobile devices.

Thanks I'll take a look at that. Google suggests there is at least one Java-based browser sniffing project in what seems like active development, which might be useful:

https://github.com/HaraldWalker/user-agent-utils

Presumably you could write a more modern implementation of ERXBrowser with something like that.

Another problem we're encountering is the huge variety in connection speed differences between "modern" devices. Also, since people are now using USB cel sticks or their mobile devices as hotspots for laptops, the variety is unpredictable and vast. We can no longer make the assumptions about connection speed that we could have even a couple of years ago.

Sorry for no solution, but maybe our experience can add fuel to the fire :)

Definitely. I really just wanted to know what other people were doing. I fully understand the philosophical objection to browser sniffing, and the theoretical superiority of client-side capability detection and responsive design, but sometimes you have to solve actual problems in the real world on a limited budget. In this case, all I want to know is whether the user is probably running a "mobile" browser at the time of their first request.

--
Paul Hoadley
http://logicsquad.net/

References:
	>State of the art in browser capability detection (From: Paul Hoadley <email@hidden>)
	>Re: State of the art in browser capability detection (From: David Holt <email@hidden>)