Question

detect Mac OS X and the new Safari browser

Asked by: liaos

Hi! All:

First time here, and wonder if anyone can help me with a javascript that will detect if a user is using Mac OS X?

Also, a new brwoser called "Safari" is released yesterday for Mac OS X, and I wonder how can I use javascript to detect if a user is using that particular browser?

Thanks for your help!  

Y.L

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Asked On
2003-01-10 at 08:39:59ID20451547
Tags

safari

,

detect

,

browser

,

mac

Topic

JavaScript

Participating Experts
4
Points
50
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: ketapillarPosted on 2003-01-10 at 09:08:54ID: 7702938

If you are using ASP then use the browser to open a page with the following within the code.

<%= Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_USER_AGENT") %>

once you get the browser string then you can parse it out...

For example

<%
  Dim sBrowserString, sBrowserType
 
  sBrowserString = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_USER_AGENT")

  If InStr(sBrowserString, "WebTV") > 0 Then
     sBrowserType = "WebTV"
  ElseIf InStr(sBrowserString, "UniqueStringInSafari") > 0 Then
     sBrowserType = "Safari"
  ElseIf InStr(sBrowserString, "MSIE") > 0 Then
     sBrowserType = "MSIE"
  Else: sBrowserType = "Netscape"
End If
%>

 

by: WI2822Posted on 2003-01-10 at 09:24:01ID: 7703041

Safari can be found by using:
if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Safari") > -1) {
 alert("It's Safari!")
}

I don't know about OSX... http://home.dobbelaere.com:7080/tim/client_sniffer.html has e pretty extensive way, but I tested it in several browsers, and most identify themselves as being on a MacPPC platform (with the exception of Safari!!)

Good luck!

 

by: SGCPosted on 2003-01-10 at 12:41:45ID: 7704372


I dont believe OS X broadcasts itself as specifically being OS X pending the browser. (safari does now)

This function is pretty accurate on determining OS X:

function getMacOSVersion() {
ua = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
     if(navigator.plugins["Default Plugin Carbon.cfm"] || ua.indexOf("omniweb") != -1 || ua.indexOf('os x') != -1) {
     return "OSX"
     } else {
     return "other"
     }
}

Also, Safari's user agent is:
Netscape 5.0 Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/48 (like Gecko) Safari/48

 

by: Jester_48Posted on 2004-01-10 at 18:16:40ID: 10089325

No comment has been added lately, so it's time to clean up this TA.

I will leave a recommendation in the Cleanup topic area that this question is:

points split ketapillar and SGC

Please leave any comments here within the next seven days.
 

PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT THIS COMMENT AS AN ANSWER!

Jester_48

EE Cleanup Volunteer

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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