How can I detect the browser with PHP or JavaScript?

Question

How can I detect if the user is not using any of the browsers Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer using JavaScript or PHP?

I might point out that knowing the browser is only useful as long as the agent-string hasn't been modified... I'm guessing you already know this tho. — jcolebrand
– jcolebrand, Commented Sep 29, 2010 at 17:42

Fabien Ménager · Accepted Answer · 2009-12-13 14:36:52Z

15

The best way to do this in JS I found is on Quirksmode. I made one for PHP which should work with common browsers :

  $browser = array(
    'version'   => '0.0.0',
    'majorver'  => 0,
    'minorver'  => 0,
    'build'     => 0,
    'name'      => 'unknown',
    'useragent' => ''
  );

  $browsers = array(
    'firefox', 'msie', 'opera', 'chrome', 'safari', 'mozilla', 'seamonkey', 'konqueror', 'netscape',
    'gecko', 'navigator', 'mosaic', 'lynx', 'amaya', 'omniweb', 'avant', 'camino', 'flock', 'aol'
  );

  if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])) {
    $browser['useragent'] = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
    $user_agent = strtolower($browser['useragent']);
    foreach($browsers as $_browser) {
      if (preg_match("/($_browser)[\/ ]?([0-9.]*)/", $user_agent, $match)) {
        $browser['name'] = $match[1];
        $browser['version'] = $match[2];
        @list($browser['majorver'], $browser['minorver'], $browser['build']) = explode('.', $browser['version']);
        break;
      }
    }
  }

answered Dec 13, 2009 at 14:36

Fabien Ménager

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1 Comment

Muhammad Umer Over a year ago

so i read around and this is what i found... whether its php or javascript, they both get the information that what browser it is through httpheaders, also the way Apache does. Correct if i am wrong.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 23:05:38Z

Here is JavaScript code through which you can easily detect the browser.

    var userAgent = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();

    // Figure out what browser is being used.
    var Browser = {
        Version: (userAgent.match(/.+(?:rv|it|ra|ie)[\/: ]([\d.]+)/) || [])[1],
        Chrome: /chrome/.test(userAgent),
        Safari: /webkit/.test(userAgent),
        Opera: /opera/.test(userAgent),
        IE: /msie/.test(userAgent) && !/opera/.test(userAgent),
        Mozilla: /mozilla/.test(userAgent) && !/(compatible|webkit)/.test(userAgent),
        Check: function() { alert(userAgent); }
    };

    if (Browser.Chrome || Browser.Mozilla) {
        // Do your stuff for Firefox and Chrome.
    }
    else if (Browser.IE) {
        // Do something related to Internet Explorer.
    }
    else {
        // The browser is Safari, Opera or some other.
    }

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 23:08:43Z

6

There is actually a function in PHP for that, get_browser.

edited May 5, 2011 at 23:08

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 13, 2009 at 6:22

txyoji

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3 Comments

user103219 Over a year ago

Very interesting, I was unaware of this function. thx for the info

Oz. Over a year ago

That function requires browsecap.ini, which is not core PHP.

txyoji Over a year ago

True. Here is a pure php version of this function. It auto-updates the browsecap file too. code.google.com/p/phpbrowscap

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 23:19:48Z

PHP code from get_browser() is totally working for me ;)

<?php
    function getBrowser()
    {
        $u_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
        $bname = 'Unknown';
        $platform = 'Unknown';
        $version= "";

        //First get the platform?
        if (preg_match('/linux/i', $u_agent)) {
            $platform = 'linux';
        }
        elseif (preg_match('/macintosh|mac os x/i', $u_agent)) {
            $platform = 'mac';
        }
        elseif (preg_match('/windows|win32/i', $u_agent)) {
            $platform = 'windows';
        }

        // Next get the name of the useragent yes separately and for good reason.
        if (preg_match('/MSIE/i',$u_agent) && !preg_match('/Opera/i',$u_agent))
        {
            $bname = 'Internet Explorer';
            $ub = "MSIE";
        }
        elseif (preg_match('/Firefox/i',$u_agent))
        {
            $bname = 'Mozilla Firefox';
            $ub = "Firefox";
        }
        elseif (preg_match('/Chrome/i',$u_agent))
        {
            $bname = 'Google Chrome';
            $ub = "Chrome";
        }
        elseif (preg_match('/Safari/i',$u_agent))
        {
            $bname = 'Apple Safari';
            $ub = "Safari";
        }
        elseif (preg_match('/Opera/i',$u_agent))
        {
            $bname = 'Opera';
            $ub = "Opera";
        }
        elseif (preg_match('/Netscape/i',$u_agent))
        {
            $bname = 'Netscape';
            $ub = "Netscape";
        }

        // Finally get the correct version number.
        $known = array('Version', $ub, 'other');
        $pattern = '#(?<browser>' . join('|', $known) .
        ')[/ ]+(?<version>[0-9.|a-zA-Z.]*)#';
        if (!preg_match_all($pattern, $u_agent, $matches)) {
            // we have no matching number just continue
        }

        // See how many we have.
        $i = count($matches['browser']);
        if ($i != 1) {
            //we will have two since we are not using 'other' argument yet
            //see if version is before or after the name
            if (strripos($u_agent,"Version") < strripos($u_agent,$ub)){
                $version= $matches['version'][0];
            }
            else {
                $version= $matches['version'][1];
            }
        }
        else {
            $version= $matches['version'][0];
        }

        // Check if we have a number.
        if ($version==null || $version=="") {$version="?";}

        return array(
            'userAgent' => $u_agent,
            'name'      => $bname,
            'version'   => $version,
            'platform'  => $platform,
            'pattern'    => $pattern
        );
    }

    // Now try it.
    $ua=getBrowser();
    $yourbrowser= "Your browser: " . $ua['name'] . " " . $ua['version'] . " on " .
                  $ua['platform'] . " reports: <br >" . $ua['userAgent'];
    print_r($yourbrowser);
?>

T.Todua · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-16 06:59:02Z

2

1) 99.9% accurate detector: BrowserDetection.php (Examples)

2) simplest function (but inaccurate for tricking) :

<?php
function get_user_browser()
{
    $u_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];        $ub = '';
    if(preg_match('/MSIE/i',$u_agent))          {   $ub = "ie";     }
    elseif(preg_match('/Firefox/i',$u_agent))   {   $ub = "firefox";    }
    elseif(preg_match('/Safari/i',$u_agent))    {   $ub = "safari"; }
    elseif(preg_match('/Chrome/i',$u_agent))    {   $ub = "chrome"; }
    elseif(preg_match('/Flock/i',$u_agent)) {   $ub = "flock";      }
    elseif(preg_match('/Opera/i',$u_agent)) {   $ub = "opera";      }
  return $ub;
}
?>

edited May 16, 2016 at 6:59

answered Mar 26, 2013 at 12:41

T.Todua

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Comments

Oz. · Accepted Answer · 2009-12-13 11:01:01Z

1

In PHP I use the $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] value and attack it with regex or stristr.

answered Dec 13, 2009 at 11:01

Oz.

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Comments

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 23:11:28Z

1

I use the class Browser Detect for PHP.

edited May 5, 2011 at 23:11

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 13, 2009 at 10:09

Digital Craft Studios

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Comments

vusan · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-30 12:38:53Z

1

This may be simple way to know that the browser is not using IE, Chrome, or FF

if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Chrome") != -1)
    BName = "Chrome";
if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Firefox") != -1)
    BName = "Firefox";
if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("MSIE") != -1)
    BName = "IE";

if(BName=='Chrome' || BName=='Firefox' || BName=='IE') 
    BName="Not other";
else BName="other";
alert(BName);

answered Aug 30, 2012 at 12:38

vusan

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Comments

ianaz · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-12 14:03:37Z

Did this class in JS

function CSystemInfo(){
    var self = this;

    self.nScreenWidth = 0;
    self.nScreenHeight = 0;
    self.sPlatform = "Unknown";
    self.sBrowser = "Unknown";

    var init = function(){
        self.nScreenWidth = screen.width;
        self.nScreenHeight = screen.height;
        self.sPlatform = navigator.platform;
        self.sBrowser = getBrowser();
    }

    var getBrowser = function(){
        var userAgent = navigator.userAgent;
        var version = "UNKNOWN VERSION";

        if (userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf('msie') > -1) {
            var ieversionreg = /(MSIE ([0-9]{1,2}\.[0-9]{1,2}))/;
            if(ieversionreg.test(userAgent)){
                version = ieversionreg.exec(userAgent)[2];
            }
            return 'Internet Explorer '+version;
        }
        else if (userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf('firefox') > -1){
            var ffversionreg = /(Firefox\/(.+))/;
            if(ffversionreg.test(userAgent)){
                version = ffversionreg.exec(userAgent)[2];
            }
            return 'Firefox '+version;
        }
        else if (userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf('chrome') > -1){
            var chromereg = /Chrome\/([0-9]{1,2})/;
            if(chromereg.test(userAgent)){
                version = chromereg.exec(userAgent)[1];
            }
            return 'Google Chrome '+version;
        }
        else return 'Unknown';
    }

    init();
}

instantiate it by calling

var oInfo = new CSystemInfo();
// Retrieve infos
oInfo.sBrowser; // Google Chrome 21

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 23:13:57Z

0

The simplest way to do it with JavaScript is

<script language="Javascript">
    location.href = 'URL_TO_FORWARD_TO';
</script>

Within the location.href, you could use a PHP variable like so:

<script language="Javascript">
    location.href = '<?php echo $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']; ?>';
</script>

This would take a URL given as a query to the PHP script and forward to that URL. The script would be called like this:

http://your-server/path-to-script/script.php?URL_TO_FORWARD_TO

Good luck.

edited May 5, 2011 at 23:13

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 13, 2009 at 14:28

bng44270

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Comments

Strixy · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-17 21:05:21Z

The introduction of IE 11 has made this method obsolete, though I have updated it to take that into account. It is much better to use JavaScript and feature detection. Of course, sometimes you just want to kill a browser completely and/or have to accommodate for the use case where JavaScript may be disabled.

I don't know about the OP's ultimate goal, but in my case all I really wanted to do was bounce Balmer's browsers. What we had in place failed for IE 10 users due to a false positive caused by a regex similar to another solution. (I don't know if the regex in this thread causes the same false positive or not, but I do know the one on this page is not the same as the broken one we had).

I made up a method that didn't rely on a regex (per se). I also didn't want to run into a scenario where I had to edit the script to accommodate new browsers, however, editing the script to expire obsolete browsers in the future is acceptable.

function obsolete_browser(){
$ua = (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']))?$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']:'';
$browser = explode(';',$ua);
foreach($browser as &$b){ 
    $b = trim($b); // remove the spaces
    $c = explode('.',$b); // major revision only please
    if($c[0]){ $b = $c[0]; }
}
if(in_array("Trident/7",$browser)){ // IE11
    return false;
} else if(in_array('MSIE 4',$browser) 
|| in_array('MSIE 5',$browser) 
|| in_array('MSIE 6',$browser)  
|| in_array('MSIE 7',$browser) 
//  || in_array('MSIE 8',$browser) // we'll need this soon enough, right?
|| in_array('BOLT/2',$browser) // worst browser ever
){
    return true;
}
return false;
}

Ricardo Fercher · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-21 07:03:09Z

Simply Java Script which detects your browser, just call this function:

    <script>
 function which_browser() {

 //browser_flag --> 0 --> Opera, Chrome, Safari, Firefox
 //browser_flag --> 1 --> Internet Explorer
 var browser_flag = 0;  

 if((navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Opera") || navigator.userAgent.indexOf('OPR')) != -1 ) 
{
    alert('Opera --> browser_flag = ' + browser_flag);
}
else if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Chrome") != -1 )
{
    alert('Chrome --> browser_flag = ' + browser_flag);
}
else if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Safari") != -1)
{
    alert('Safari --> browser_flag = ' + browser_flag);
}
else if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Firefox") != -1 ) 
{
     alert('Firefox --> browser_flag = ' + browser_flag);
}
else if((navigator.userAgent.indexOf("MSIE") != -1 ) || (!!document.documentMode == true )) //IF IE > 10
{
  browser_flag = 1;

  alert('IE --> browser_flag = ' + browser_flag); 
}  
else 
{
   alert('unknown');
}


return browser_flag;
}
</script>

If IE, browser_flag get 1, else browser_flag is 0!

of course adjustable

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