User Agent Class

The User Agent Class provides functions that help identify informationabout the browser, mobile device, or robot visiting your site.

• Using the User Agent Class
  • Initializing the Class
  • User Agent Definitions
  • Example
• Class Reference

Using the User Agent Class

Initializing the Class

The User Agent class is always available directly from the current IncomingRequest instance.By default, you will have a request instance in your controller that you can retrieve theUser Agent class from:

$agent = $this->request->getUserAgent();

User Agent Definitions

The user agent name definitions are located in a config file located at:app/Config/UserAgents.php. You may add items to the varioususer agent arrays if needed.

Example

When the User Agent class is initialized it will attempt to determinewhether the user agent browsing your site is a web browser, a mobiledevice, or a robot. It will also gather the platform information if itis available:

$agent = $this->request->getUserAgent();
 
if ($agent->isBrowser())
{
        $currentAgent = $agent->getBrowser().' '.$agent->getVersion();
}
elseif ($agent->isRobot())
{
        $currentAgent = $this->agent->robot();
}
elseif ($agent->isMobile())
{
        $currentAgent = $agent->getMobile();
}
else
{
        $currentAgent = 'Unidentified User Agent';
}
 
echo $currentAgent;
 
echo $agent->getPlatform(); // Platform info (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.)

Class Reference

• CodeIgniter\HTTP\UserAgent
• • isBrowser([$key = NULL])

Parameters:

- **$key** (_string_) – Optional browser nameReturns:

TRUE if the user agent is a (specified) browser, FALSE if notReturn type:bool

Returns TRUE/FALSE (boolean) if the user agent is a known web browser.

if ($agent->isBrowser('Safari'))
{
        echo 'You are using Safari.';
}
elseif ($agent->isBrowser())
{
        echo 'You are using a browser.';
}

Note

The string “Safari” in this example is an array key in the list of browser definitions.You can find this list in app/Config/UserAgents.php if you want to add newbrowsers or change the strings.

• isMobile([$key = NULL])

Parameters:

- **$key** (_string_) – Optional mobile device nameReturns:

TRUE if the user agent is a (specified) mobile device, FALSE if notReturn type:bool

Returns TRUE/FALSE (boolean) if the user agent is a known mobile device.

if ($agent->isMobile('iphone'))
{
        echo view('iphone/home');
}
elseif ($agent->isMobile())
{
        echo view('mobile/home');
}
else
{
        echo view('web/home');
}

• isRobot([$key = NULL])

Parameters:

- **$key** (_string_) – Optional robot nameReturns:

TRUE if the user agent is a (specified) robot, FALSE if notReturn type:bool

Returns TRUE/FALSE (boolean) if the user agent is a known robot.

Note

The user agent library only contains the most common robot definitions. It is not a complete list of bots.There are hundreds of them so searching for each one would not be very efficient. If you find that some botsthat commonly visit your site are missing from the list you can add them to yourapp/Config/UserAgents.php file.

• isReferral()

Returns:TRUE if the user agent is a referral, FALSE if notReturn type:bool

Returns TRUE/FALSE (boolean) if the user agent was referred from another site.

• getBrowser()

Returns:Detected browser or an empty stringReturn type:string

Returns a string containing the name of the web browser viewing your site.

• getVersion()

Returns:Detected browser version or an empty stringReturn type:string

Returns a string containing the version number of the web browser viewing your site.

• getMobile()

Returns:Detected mobile device brand or an empty stringReturn type:string

Returns a string containing the name of the mobile device viewing your site.

• getRobot()

Returns:Detected robot name or an empty stringReturn type:string

Returns a string containing the name of the robot viewing your site.

• getPlatform()

Returns:Detected operating system or an empty stringReturn type:string

Returns a string containing the platform viewing your site (Linux, Windows, OS X, etc.).

• getReferrer()

Returns:Detected referrer or an empty stringReturn type:string

The referrer, if the user agent was referred from another site. Typically you’ll test for this as follows:

if ($agent->isReferral())
{
        echo $agent->referrer();
}

• getAgentString()

Returns:Full user agent string or an empty stringReturn type:string

Returns a string containing the full user agent string. Typically it will be something like this:

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060613 Camino/1.0.2

• parse($string)

Parameters:

- **$string** (_string_) – A custom user-agent stringReturn type:

void

Parses a custom user-agent string, different from the one reported by the current visitor.