Browser Name
JavaScript FAQ |
Client & Browser Configuration FAQ
|
Question: How do I detect the browser name (vendor)?
Answer:
To establish the actual name of the user's Web browser, you can use the
navigator.appName and navigator.userAgent properties.
The userAgent property is more reliable than appName because, for example, Firefox or Opera
may return the string "Netscape" as the value of navigator.appName,
reflecting earlier efforts to achieve better compatibility with (now extinct) Netscape Navigator.
Note, however, that navigator.userAgent may be spoofed, too –
that is, clients may substitute virtually any string for their userAgent.
Therefore, whatever appName or userAgent
should be taken with a grain of salt.
The code example below uses navigator.userAgent to implement browser detection.
It also uses navigator.appName and navigator.appVersion as a last resort only,
if the userAgent string has an "unexpected" format. In your browser, this code produces the following output:
And here is the source code that performed the browser detection:
var nVer = navigator.appVersion;
var nAgt = navigator.userAgent;
var browserName = navigator.appName;
var fullVersion = ''+parseFloat(navigator.appVersion);
var majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion,10);
var nameOffset,verOffset,ix;
// In Opera 15+, the true version is after "OPR/"
if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("OPR/"))!=-1) {
browserName = "Opera";
fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+4);
}
// In older Opera, the true version is after "Opera" or after "Version"
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Opera"))!=-1) {
browserName = "Opera";
fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+6);
if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Version"))!=-1)
fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+8);
}
// In MSIE, the true version is after "MSIE" in userAgent
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("MSIE"))!=-1) {
browserName = "Microsoft Internet Explorer";
fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+5);
}
// In Chrome, the true version is after "Chrome"
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Chrome"))!=-1) {
browserName = "Chrome";
fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+7);
}
// In Safari, the true version is after "Safari" or after "Version"
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Safari"))!=-1) {
browserName = "Safari";
fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+7);
if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Version"))!=-1)
fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+8);
}
// In Firefox, the true version is after "Firefox"
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Firefox"))!=-1) {
browserName = "Firefox";
fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+8);
}
// In most other browsers, "name/version" is at the end of userAgent
else if ( (nameOffset=nAgt.lastIndexOf(' ')+1) <
(verOffset=nAgt.lastIndexOf('/')) )
{
browserName = nAgt.substring(nameOffset,verOffset);
fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+1);
if (browserName.toLowerCase()==browserName.toUpperCase()) {
browserName = navigator.appName;
}
}
// trim the fullVersion string at semicolon/space if present
if ((ix=fullVersion.indexOf(";"))!=-1)
fullVersion=fullVersion.substring(0,ix);
if ((ix=fullVersion.indexOf(" "))!=-1)
fullVersion=fullVersion.substring(0,ix);
majorVersion = parseInt(''+fullVersion,10);
if (isNaN(majorVersion)) {
fullVersion = ''+parseFloat(navigator.appVersion);
majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion,10);
}
document.write(''
+'Browser name = '+browserName+'<br>'
+'Full version = '+fullVersion+'<br>'
+'Major version = '+majorVersion+'<br>'
+'navigator.appName = '+navigator.appName+'<br>'
+'navigator.userAgent = '+navigator.userAgent+'<br>'
)