NEWS: July 6th, 2010 Development moved to github: http://github.com/garetjax/phpbrowscap. Active contributors or maintainer seeked!¶

Browser Capabilities PHP Project¶

HACKING AROUND WITH PHP TO HAVE A BETTER SOLUTION THAN GET_BROWSER()

Introduction¶

The browscap.ini file is a database maintained by Gary Keith at http://browsers.garykeith.com/ which provides a lot of details about browsers and their capabilities, such as name, versions, Javascript support and so on.

PHP's native get_browser() function parses this file and provides you with a complete set of information about every browser's details. But it requires the path to the browscap.ini file to be specified in the php.ini browscap directive which is flagged as PHP_INI_SYSTEM. That means in most shared hosting environments you cannot edit the php.ini file.

Browscap is a standalone class for both PHP4 and PHP5 that gets around the limitations of get_browser() and manages the whole thing. It offers methods to update, cache, adapt and get details about every supplied user agent on a standalone basis.

Features¶

Here is a feature list of the Browscap class:

• Fast
• Standalone
• Even faster parsing many user agents
• Fully get_browser() compatible
• Often faster and more accurate than get_browser()
• Fully PHP configuration independent
• User agent auto-detection
• Returns object or array
• Parsed .ini file cached directly into PHP arrays
• Accepts any .ini file (even ASP and lite versions)
• Auto updated browscap.ini file and cache from remote server with version checking
• Configurable remote update server
• Fully configurable (since 0.2)
• --PHP4 and-- PHP5 compatible (PHP4 version deprecated)
• Released under the GNU Lesser General Public License

Contact¶

Because your opinion matters.

If only to say "Hello, it works!", or to ask for a feature or report a bug, or for basic support write to:

• st DOT jonathan AT gmail DOT com

Also via instant messenger:

• AIM: garetjax@mac.com
• MSN: same as e-mail address
• ICQ: 322754291
• Yahoo: g4retj4x
• GTalk: same as e-mail address