Version 3.5.1

Example: Browser Detection with `UA`

This example demonstrates how to access YUI's built-in user-agent information to learn things about the environment in which your code is running. This includes information like what browser, version, and operating system are being used; it also includes context information like whether you're code is running on a mobile browser, running in a secure page, or running under Adobe Air or Google Caja.

Note: We strongly recommend using feature detection rather than user-agent sniffing to fork code. Fork on the user-agent information only when absolutely necessary to do so (for example, in cases where browsers do not report their own capabilities accurately).

UA properties set for your browser:

First, a word of caution

Please DO NOT use this in place of feature detection. Though many browsers have known JavaScript implementation quirks, it is bad practice and unsafe coding to make the assumption that because the page is being viewed in browser X that you can rely on feature Y being available. Check for feature Y if you need it.

Browser sniffing is an imprecise science, and relies on many things in the browser environment to be just right. Though many techniques are very accurate, 100% accuracy can't be guaranteed.

Use the UA object to inform you of what browser your page is being viewed in, but avoid using this technique unless feature detection will not serve your purpose.

What UA looks like

UA is an object literal containing keys for most major user agents. The key corresponding to the current browser is assigned a version number. All others have value 0, with the exception of the mobile property, which is a string value indicating the name of a supported mobile device that was detected or null.

if (Y.UA.gecko > 0) {}  // e.g. Firefox
if (Y.UA.ie > 0) {}     // Microsoft Internet Explorer

// Or leverage boolean coercion -- 0 evaluates as false
if (Y.UA.opera) {}  // Opera
if (Y.UA.webkit) {} // Safari, Webkit

There's more information on the UA object and value ranges in the API Documentation.

Instantiate YUI

YUI().use('node', function(Y) {
    // This method is in the core of the library, so we don't have to use() any
    // additional modules to access it.  However, this example requires 'node'.

User Agent Info

In this simple example, we use the each to iterate the UA object.

var results = Y.one('#demo'), ua = '', platform = '';

Y.each(Y.UA, function(v, k) {
    var info = k + ': ' + v;
    results.append('<p>' + info + '</p>');

    if (v) {
        if (Y.Lang.isNumber(v)) {
            ua = info;
        } else {
            platform = v;
        }
    }
});

results.append('<p>Your browser is ' + ua + ', ' + platform + '</p>');