Syntax
object
get_browser ( [string user_agent [, bool return_array]] )
get_browser() attempts to determine the
capabilities of the user's browser. This is done by looking up
the browser's information in the browscap.ini
file.
By default, the value of $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] is
used; however, you can alter this (i.e., look up another browser's
info) by passing the optional user_agent parameter to
get_browser(). You can bypass user_agent
parameter with NULL value.
The information is returned in an object, which will contain
various data elements representing, for instance, the browser's
major and minor version numbers and ID string; TRUE/FALSE values
for features such as frames, JavaScript, and cookies; and so
forth.
As of PHP 4.3.2, if the optional parameter
return_array is TRUE, this function will return an
array instead of an object.
Example 1. Listing all information about the users browser
<?php
echo $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] . "\n\n";
$browser = get_browser(null, true);
print_r($browser);
?>
|
The above example will output
something similar to: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3
Array
(
[browser_name_regex] => ^mozilla/5\.0 (windows; .; windows nt 5\.1; .*rv:.*) gecko/.* firefox/0\.9.*$
[browser_name_pattern] => Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; ?; Windows NT 5.1; *rv:*) Gecko/* Firefox/0.9*
[parent] => Firefox 0.9
[platform] => WinXP
[browser] => Firefox
[version] => 0.9
[majorver] => 0
[minorver] => 9
[css] => 2
[frames] => 1
[iframes] => 1
[tables] => 1
[cookies] => 1
[backgroundsounds] =>
[vbscript] =>
[javascript] => 1
[javaapplets] => 1
[activexcontrols] =>
[cdf] =>
[aol] =>
[beta] => 1
[win16] =>
[crawler] =>
[stripper] =>
[wap] =>
[netclr] =>
) |
|
The cookies value simply means that the browser
itself is capable of accepting cookies and does not mean the user has
enabled the browser to accept cookies or not. The only way to test if
cookies are accepted is to set one with setcookie(),
reload, and check for the value.
Note:
In order for this to work, your browscap
configuration setting in php.ini must point to the correct location of the
browscap.ini file on your system.
browscap.ini is not bundled with PHP, but you
may find an up-to-date php_browscap.ini
file here.
While browscap.ini contains information on
many browsers, it relies on user updates to keep the database
current. The format of the file is fairly self-explanatory.