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Detection of Mobile Devices

Each Internet browser whether its a fully blown desktop browser like Firefox, Internet Explorer or a mobile phone will send out a request with each connection it makes with a User Agent tag.

This tag usually contains the name of the browser and what version is it. It can also contain what the system default language is as well as other information. This could be used to direct users to a mobile version of the site or to the normal website.

There is an open-source project called WURFL which is basically a set of XML file that contain information about capabilities and features of over 9000 wireless devices. Its possible to use this information to redirect people using a mobile device to a more appropriate version of the site.

Using the PHP modules they provide with the software you can use this command to redirect users to a mobile version of the site:

PLAIN TEXT
PHP:
  1. if (  $wurflObj->getDeviceCapability('is_wireless_device') )
  2. {
  3. header("Location:  http://desktop.example.com/");
  4. }
  5. else
  6. {
  7. header("Location:  http://mobile.example.com/");
  8. }

[Source: dev.mobi - 6 December 2006]

The only problem with this method is that its not guaranteed to have all and new mobile devices in its database. So not all users will be detected and redirected correctly.

I could use this method combined with option to view the full site or the mobile version.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 6th, 2006 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Ideas, Features, Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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