Parser-PHP

Browser sniffing gone too far — A useragent parser library for PHP

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Quick Overview

WhichBrowser/Parser-PHP is a user agent parser library for PHP. It detects the type of browser, operating system, and device used by website visitors based on their user agent string. The library provides detailed information about the client's environment, making it useful for analytics, device-specific optimizations, and compatibility checks.

Pros

Comprehensive detection capabilities for browsers, operating systems, and devices
Regular updates to keep up with new user agents and devices
Extensive test suite ensuring reliability and accuracy
Easy integration with existing PHP projects

Cons

May have a performance impact on high-traffic websites due to complex parsing
Requires periodic updates to maintain accuracy as new devices and browsers are released
Large codebase might be overkill for simple user agent detection needs
Dependency on PHP, limiting use in non-PHP environments

Code Examples

Basic usage:

use WhichBrowser\Parser;

$result = new Parser($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);
echo "You are using " . $result->browser->name . " on " . $result->os->name . ".";

Checking for a specific browser:

use WhichBrowser\Parser;

$result = new Parser($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);
if ($result->isBrowser('Firefox')) {
    echo "You are using Firefox!";
}

Getting device information:

use WhichBrowser\Parser;

$result = new Parser($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);
if ($result->isType('mobile')) {
    echo "You are using a " . $result->device->manufacturer . " " . $result->device->model . ".";
}

Getting Started

Install the library using Composer:

composer require whichbrowser/parser

Use the library in your PHP code:

<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use WhichBrowser\Parser;

$result = new Parser($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);
echo "Browser: " . $result->browser->name . " " . $result->browser->version->toString();
echo "Operating System: " . $result->os->name . " " . $result->os->version->toString();
echo "Device: " . $result->device->manufacturer . " " . $result->device->model;

This will output basic information about the user's browser, operating system, and device based on their user agent string.

Competitor Comparisons

device-detector

2,883

The Universal Device Detection library will parse any User Agent and detect the browser, operating system, device used (desktop, tablet, mobile, tv, cars, console, etc.), brand and model.

Pros of Device Detector

Faster parsing speed and lower memory usage
More extensive device database, including IoT devices
Regular updates and active community contributions

Cons of Device Detector

Less detailed browser version information
May require more manual configuration for edge cases
Slightly steeper learning curve for beginners

Code Comparison

Parser-PHP:

$result = new WhichBrowser\Parser(getallheaders());
echo "You are using " . $result->browser->name . " " . $result->browser->version->toString() . " on " . $result->os->name . ".";

Device Detector:

$userAgent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
$dd = new DeviceDetector($userAgent);
$dd->parse();
$clientInfo = $dd->getClient();
echo "You are using " . $clientInfo['name'] . " " . $clientInfo['version'] . " on " . $dd->getOs()['name'] . ".";

Both libraries offer similar functionality for parsing user agent strings, but Device Detector provides a more granular approach to device detection. Parser-PHP offers a simpler API for basic use cases, while Device Detector requires more setup but provides more detailed information. The choice between the two depends on the specific requirements of your project, such as performance needs, level of detail required, and ease of integration.

Mobile-Detect

10,518

Mobile_Detect is a lightweight PHP class for detecting mobile devices (including tablets). It uses the User-Agent string combined with specific HTTP headers to detect the mobile environment.

Pros of Mobile-Detect

Lightweight and focused specifically on mobile device detection
Faster execution due to its specialized nature
Simpler integration for projects primarily concerned with mobile detection

Cons of Mobile-Detect

Less comprehensive device information compared to Parser-PHP
May require more frequent updates to stay current with new devices
Limited to mobile device detection, lacking broader browser and platform insights

Code Comparison

Mobile-Detect:

$detect = new Mobile_Detect;
if ($detect->isMobile()) {
    echo 'Mobile device detected';
}

Parser-PHP:

$result = new WhichBrowser\Parser(getallheaders());
if ($result->isType('mobile')) {
    echo 'Mobile device detected';
    echo 'Browser: ' . $result->browser->name;
}

Key Differences

Mobile-Detect focuses solely on mobile device detection, while Parser-PHP provides more comprehensive information about browsers, operating systems, and devices.
Parser-PHP offers a more detailed analysis but may have a slightly higher performance overhead.
Mobile-Detect is more suitable for projects that only need to distinguish between mobile and desktop, while Parser-PHP is better for applications requiring in-depth device and browser information.

Both libraries have their merits, and the choice between them depends on the specific requirements of your project. Mobile-Detect is ideal for simpler mobile detection needs, while Parser-PHP is more suitable for comprehensive device and browser analysis.

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README

This is an extremely complicated and almost completely useless browser sniffing library. Useless because you shouldn't use browser sniffing. So stop right now and go read something about feature detecting instead. I'm serious. Go away. You'll thank me later.

WhichBrowser/Parser-PHP

The PHP version of WhichBrowser for use on a server. Fully compatible with PHP 7.0 or higher, including PHP 8.

Also available:

WhichBrowser/Parser-JavaScript
A JavaScript version of WhichBrowser for use with Node.js on the server
WhichBrowser/Server
A server written in PHP that provides a JavaScript API for use in the browser

About WhichBrowser

But why almost completely useless and not completely useless? Well, there is always an exception to the rule. There are valid reasons to do browser sniffing: to improve the user experience or to gather intelligence about which browsers are used on your website. My website is html5test.com and I wanted to know which score belongs to which browser. And to do that you need a browser sniffing library.

Why is it extremely complicated?
Because everybody lies. Seriously, there is not a single browser that is completely truthful. Almost all browsers say they are Netscape 5 and almost all WebKit browsers say they are based on Gecko. Even Internet Explorer 11 now no longer claims to be IE at all, but instead an unnamed browser that is like Gecko. And it gets worse. That is why it is complicated.

What kind of information does it give? You get a nice object which has information about the browser, rendering engine, os and device. It gives you names and versions and even device manufacturer and model. And WhichBrowser is pretty tenacious. It gives you info that others don't. For example:

JUC (Linux; U; 2.3.6; zh-cn; GT-I8150; 480*800) UCWEB8.7.4.225/145/800  
UC Browser 8.7 on a Samsung Galaxy W running Android 2.3.6

Android is never mentioned

Mozilla/5.0 (Series40; Nokia501/10.0.2; Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) Gecko/20100401 S40OviBrowser/3.0.0.0.73  
Nokia Xpress 3.0.0 on a Nokia Asha 501 running Nokia Asha Platform

Despite the useragent header claiming to be a Series40 device, we know it's actually running the Asha Platform and we also know that OviBrowser has been renamed to Nokia Xpress.

Opera/9.80 (X11; Linux zvav; U; zh) Presto/2.8.119 Version/11.10  
Opera Mini on a Nokia 5230 running Series60 5.0

The useragent header looks like Opera 11.10 on Linux, but we know it's Opera Mini. We can even figure out the real operating system and device model from other headers.

Requirements

WhichBrowser requires with PHP 7.0 or higher and supports PHP 8. WhichBrowser is compatible with the PSR-4 autoloading standard and follows PSR-1 and PSR-2 coding style.

How to install it

You can install WhichBrowser by using Composer - the standard package manager for PHP. The package is called whichbrowser/parser.

composer require whichbrowser/parser

You can easily update WhichBrowser by running a simple command.

composer update whichbrowser/parser

You should run this command as often as possible. You might even want to consider setting up a cron job for this purpose.

How to use it

The first step require the Composer autoloader:

<?php

    require 'vendor/autoload.php';

The second step is to create a new WhichBrowser\Parser object. This object will contain all the information the library could find about the browser. The object has a required parameter, either the headers send by the browser, or a useragent string. Using the headers is preferable, because it will allow a better detection, but if you have just the useragent string, this will also work.

For example:

$result = new WhichBrowser\Parser(getallheaders());

or:

$result = new WhichBrowser\Parser($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);

The variable $result now contains an object which you can query for information. There are various ways to access the information.

First of all, you can call to toString() function to get a human readable identification:

"You are using " . $result->toString();
// You are using Chrome 27 on OS X Mountain Lion 10.8

Another possiblity is to query the object:

$result->isType('desktop');
// true

$result->isType('mobile', 'tablet', 'media', 'gaming:portable');
// false

$result->isBrowser('Maxthon', '<', '4.0.5');
// false

$result->isOs('iOS', '>=', '8');
// false

$result->isOs('OS X');
// true

$result->isEngine('Blink');
// true

You can also access these properties directly:

$result->browser->toString();
// Chrome 27  

$result->engine->toString();
// Blink

$result->os->toString();
// OS X Mountain Lion 10.8

Or access parts of these properties directly:

$result->browser->name;
// Chrome

$result->browser->name . ' ' . $result->browser->version->toString();
// Chrome 27

$result->browser->version->value;
// 27.0.1453.110

$result->engine->name;
// Blink

Finally you can also query versions directly:

$result->browser->version->is('>', 26);
// true

$result->os->version->is('<', '10.7.4');
// false

Options

It is possible to set additional options by passing an array as the second parameter when creating the Parser object.

Disabling detection of bots

In some cases you may want to disable the detection of bots. This allows the bot the deliberately fool WhichBrowser, so you can pick up the identity of useragent what the bot tries to mimic. This is especially handy when you want to use WhichBrowser to switch between different variants of your website and want to make sure crawlers see the right variant of the website. For example, a bot that mimics a mobile device will see the mobile variant of you site.

$result = new WhichBrowser\Parser(getallheaders(), [ 'detectBots' => false ]);

Enable result caching

WhichBrowser supports PSR-6 compatible cache adapters for caching results between requests. Using a cache is especially useful if you use WhichBrowser on every page of your website and a user visits multiple pages. During the first visit the headers will be parsed and the result will be cached. Upon further visits, the cached results will be used, which is much faster than having to parse the headers again and again.

There are adapters available for other types of caches, such as APC, Doctrine, Memcached, MongoDB, Redis and many more. The configuration of these adapters all differ from each other, but once configured, all you have to do is pass it as an option when creating the Parser object, or use the setCache() function to set it afterwards. WhichBrowser has been tested to work with the adapters provided by PHP Cache. For a list of other packages that provide adapters see Packagist.

For example, if you want to enable a memcached based cache you need to install an extra composer package:

composer require cache/memcached-adapter

And change the call to WhichBrowser/Parser as follows:

$client = new \Memcached();
$client->addServer('localhost', 11211);

$pool = new \Cache\Adapter\Memcached\MemcachedCachePool($client);

$result = new WhichBrowser\Parser(getallheaders(), [ 'cache' => $pool ]);

$client = new \Memcached();
$client->addServer('localhost', 11211);

$pool = new \Cache\Adapter\Memcached\MemcachedCachePool($client);

$result = new WhichBrowser\Parser();
$result->setCache($pool);
$result->analyse(getallheaders());

You can also specify after how many seconds a cached result should be discarded. The default value is 900 seconds or 15 minutes. If you think WhichBrowser uses too much memory for caching, you should lower this value. You can do this by setting the cacheExpires option or passing it as a second parameter to the setCache() function.

API reference

The Parser object

After a new WhichBrowser\Parser object is created, it contains a number of properties and functions. All of these properties are guaranteed to be present.

Properties:

browser
an object that contains information about the browser itself
engine
an object that contains information about the rendering engine
os
an object that contains information about the operating system
device
an object that contains information about the device

Functions:

getType()
Returns the type and subtype property of the device object. If a subtype is present it is concatenated to the type and seperated by a semicolor, for example: mobile:smart or gaming:portable. If the subtype is not applicable, it just return the type, for example: desktop or ereader.

isType($type [,$type [,$type [,$type]]])
If a single argument is used, the function returns true if the argument matches the type propery of device object. The argument can optionally also provide a subtype by concatenating it to the type and seperating it with a semicolon. It can use multiple arguments in which case the function returns true if one of the arguments matches. If none of the arguments matches, it returns false

isMobile()
Return true if the browser is a mobile device, like a phone, tablet, ereader, camera, portable media player, watch or portable gaming console. Otherwise it returns false.

isBrowser($name [, $comparison, $version])
Is used to query the name and version property of the browser object. The funcion can contain a single argument to a simple comparison based on name, or three arguments to compare both name and version. The first argument always contains the name of the browser. The second arguments is a string that can container either <, <=, =, => or >. The third is an integer, float or string that contains the version. You can use versions like 10, 10.7 or '10.7.4'. For more information about how version comparisons are performed, please see the is() function of the Version object.

isEngine($name [, $comparison, $version])
Is used to query the name and version property of the engine object. This function works in exactly the same way as isBrowser.

isOs($name [, $comparison, $version])
Is used to query the name and version property of the os object. This function works in exactly the same way as isBrowser.

isDetected()
Is there actually some browser detected, or did we fail to detect anything?

toString()
Get a human readable representation of the detected browser, including operating system and device information.

The browser object

An object of the WhichBrowser\Model\Browser class is used for the browser property of the main WhichBrowser\Parser object and contains a number of properties. If a property is not applicable in this situation it will be null or undefined.

Properties:

name
a string containing the name of the browser
alias
a string containing an alternative name of the browser
version
a version object containing information about the version of the browser
stock
a boolean, true if the browser is the default browser of the operating system, false otherwise
channel
a string containing the distribution channel, ie. 'Nightly' or 'Next'.
mode
a string that can contain the operating mode of the browser, ie. 'proxy'.
hidden
a boolean that is true if the browser does not have a name and is the default of the operating system.
family
an object that contains information about to which family this browser belongs
using
an object that contains information about to which kind of webview this browser uses

Functions:

isFamily($name)
Does the family of this browser have this name, or does the browser itself have this name.

isUsing($name)
Is the browser using a webview using with the provided name.

getName()
Get the name of the browser

getVersion()
Get the version of the browser

toString()
Get a human readable representation of the detected browser

The engine object

An object of the WhichBrowser\Model\Engine class is used for the engine property of the main WhichBrowser\Parser object and contains a number of properties. If a property is not applicable in this situation it will be null or undefined.

Properties:

name
a string containing the name of the rendering engine
version
a version object containing information about the version of the rendering engine

Functions:

getName()
Get the name of the rendering engine

getVersion()
Get the version of the rendering engine

toString()
Get a human readable representation of the detected rendering engine

The os object

An object of the WhichBrowser\Model\Os class is used for the os property of the main WhichBrowser\Parser object and contains a number of properties. If a property is not applicable in this situation it will be null or undefined.

Properties:

name
a string containing the name of the operating system
version
a version object containing information about the version of the operating system
family
an object that contains information about to which family this operating system belongs

Functions:

isFamily($name)
Does the family of this operating system have this name, or does the operating system itself have this name.

getName()
Get the name of the operating system

getVersion()
Get the version of the operating system

toString()
Get a human readable representation of the detected operating system

The device object

An object of the WhichBrowser\Model\Device class is used for the device property of the main WhichBrowser\Parser object and contains a number of properties. If a property is not applicable in this situation it will be null or undefined.

Properties:

type
a string containing the type of the browser.
subtype
a string containing the subtype of the browser.
identified
a boolean that is true if the device has been positively identified.
manufacturer
a string containing the manufacturer of the device, ie. 'Apple' or 'Samsung'.
model
as string containing the model of the device, ie. 'iPhone' or 'Galaxy S4'.

The type property can contain any value from the following list:

desktop
mobile
pda
dect
tablet
gaming
ereader
media
headset
watch
emulator
television
monitor
camera
printer
signage
whiteboard
devboard
inflight
appliance
gps
car
pos
bot
projector

If the type is "mobile", the subtype property can contain any value from the following list:

feature
smart

If the type is "gaming", the subtype property can contain any value from the following list:

console
portable

Functions:

getManufacturer()
Get the name of the manufacturer

getModel()
Get the name of the model

toString()
Get a human readable representation of the detected device

The family object

An object of the WhichBrowser\Model\Family class is used for the family property of the WhichBrowser\Model\Browser and WhichBrowser\Model\Os object and contains a number of properties. If a property is not applicable in this situation it will be null or undefined.

Properties:

name
a string containing the name of the family
version
a version object containing information about the version of the family

Functions:

getName()
Get the name of the family

getVersion()
Get the version of the family

toString()
Get a human readable representation of the family

The using object

An object of the WhichBrowser\Model\Using class is used for the using property of the WhichBrowser\Model\Browser object and contains a number of properties. If a property is not applicable in this situation it will be null or undefined.

Properties:

name
a string containing the name of the webview
version
a version object containing information about the version of the webview

Functions:

getName()
Get the name of the webview

getVersion()
Get the version of the webview

toString()
Get a human readable representation of the webview

The version object

An object of the WhichBrowser\Model\Version class is used for the version property of the browser, engine and os object and contains a number of properties and functions. If a property is not applicable in this situation it will be null or undefined.

Properties:

value
a string containing the original version number.
alias
a string containing an alias for the version number, ie. 'XP' for Windows '5.1'.
nickname
a string containing a nickname for the version number, ie. 'Mojave' for OS X '10.14'.
details
an integer containing the number of digits of the version number that should be printed.

Functions:

is($version) or is($comparison, $version)
Using this function it is easy to compare a version to another version. If you specify only one argument, this function will return if the versions are the same. You can also specify two arguments, in that case the first argument contains the comparison operator, such as <, <=, =, => or >. The second argument is the version you want to compare it to. You can use versions like 10, 10.7 or '10.7.4', but be aware that 10 is not the same as 10.0. For example if our OS version is 10.7.4:

$result->os->version->is('10.7.4');
// true

$result->os->version->is('10.7');
// true

$result->os->version->is('10');
// true

$result->os->version->is('10.0');
// false

$result->os->version->is('>', '10');
// false

$result->os->version->is('>', '10.7');
// false

$result->os->version->is('>', '10.7.3');
// true

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