Cross-web-framework, cross-device data provider, Python framework for sniffing mobile handset properties.

When rendering web pages for mobile phones one must deal with varying handset features: different screen sizes and shapes, different supported file formats, different sets of web browser features. This library is the ultimate solution to deal with this complexity.

Support different sniffing patterns (HTTP user agent, WAP headers) and different databases (DeviceAtlas, Apex Vertex, WAP profiles).

Django, WSGI and Zope/Plone compatible.

Highlighted features

• Able to source data from multiple sniffing backends leading better handset coverage

• Automatically download, parse and cache complex RDF based WAP profiles

• Very convenient Python API designed by professionals

• Maintained

• Open source

• Unit test coverage

Sniffing backends

Note: Only object relationship mapping and SQL abstraction part of the Django is needed for sniffing databases using SQL storage. mobile.sniffer is completely web framework independent.

Installation

Simply (Unix version):

sudo easy_install mobile.sniffer

You might need following dependencies:

sudo easy_install Django
sudo easy_install rdflib
sudo easy_install zope.testbrowser

You might want to use VirtualEnv if you do not want to pollute the system wide Python installation.

Automatic installers

Proprietary handset databases do not publicly distribute their APIs or data. mobile.sniffer deals with the problem by automatic installation wrappers. Also, these handset database APIs are not open source compatible which makes it further difficult to use them in open source projects. Instead of manually download and set up bunch of files each time you deploy your code on a new server, just make call to one magical Python function which will take care of all of this for you.

Architecture

Modular structure with generic call interface across different sniffing backends

Different sniffers can be chained for better accuracy

Uses very well documented DeviceAtlas property names as keys for property queries

Usage examples

Simple example

from mobile.sniffer.apexvertex.installer import install_apex_vertex
from mobile.sniffer.apexvertex.sniffer import ApexVertexSniffer

# For this project, we source our mobile handset data from
# Apex Vertex database 
sniffer = ApexVertexSniffer()

def init():
    # Populate SQL database with provded handset information -
    # you only need to do this when handset data is updated
    install_apex_vertex("mydata.json")

def render_page(request):
    # Request can be Django, WSGI or Zope HTTPRequest object
    user_agent = sniffer.sniff(request)
    
    if user_agent == None:
        # No match in the handset database,
        return render_unknown_mobile_phone_page()

    width = user_agent.get("usableDisplayWidth")
    height = user_agent.get("usableDisplayHeight")
    has_video_link = user_agent.get("stream.3gp.h263") # Does the handset support our 3GP video clip
    
    return render_mobile_page(width, height, has_video_link)
    

Chained example

Use all available handset information sources to accurately get device data. Matching is done on property level - if one data source lacks the property information the next data source is tried. Finally if the handset is unknown, but it publishes WAP profile information, the profile is downloaded and analyzed and saved for further requests.

    from mobile.sniffer.chain import ChainedSniffer
    from mobile.sniffer.apexvertex.sniffer import ApexVertexSniffer
    from mobile.sniffer.wapprofile.sniffer import WAPProfileSniffer 
    from mobile.sniffer.deviceatlas.sniffer import DeviceAtlasSniffer
    
    # Create all supported sniffers
    da = DeviceAtlasSniffer(da_api_file)
    apex = ApexVertexSniffer()
    wap = WAPProfileSniffer()
        
    # Preferred order of sniffers    
    sniffer = ChainedSniffer([apex, da, wap])

    ua = sniffer.sniff(request) # Sniff HTTP_USER_AGENT, HTTP_PROFILE and many other fields
    property = ua.get("usableDisplayWidth") # This will look up data from all the databases in the chain

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