extracting browser information

[Rex]

I want to find out as much as I can using JavaScript
about the user's browser and possible about the user himself or
herself.
is there a good guide anywhere on the Internet that explains what
information can be extracted using JavaScript? on various web pages I
see short mentions of variables such as document.referrer and
browser.name as I have yet to find a comprehensive listing of these
variables.

Can someone please point me to a listing of all such variables?

Thanks.

[Randy Webb]

Rex said the following on 7/13/2006 11:45 AM:

I want to find out as much as I can using JavaScript
about the user's browser and possible about the user himself or
herself.

Interesting.

navigator.sex --gives the sex of the user.
navigator.lastSex --gives the date they last had sex.
navigator.favoriteDrink --gives the users favorite drink.
navigator.stupid --gives the feasibility of this exercise.

is there a good guide anywhere on the Internet that explains what
information can be extracted using JavaScript?

A better question would be "What do you want to know?"

on various web pages I see short mentions of variables such as
document.referrer

document.referrer gives you the address - in limited circumstances - of
the page that opened the current page.

and browser.name as I have yet to find a comprehensive listing of these variables.

Never seen "browser.name"

Can someone please point me to a listing of all such variables?

<URL: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript>

Happy hunting.

--
Randy
comp.lang.javascript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq & newsgroup weekly
Temporarily at: http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/hikksnotathome/cljfaq/
Javascript Best Practices - http://www.JavascriptToolbox.com/bestpractices/

[bobzimuta]

Unlike the last poster, I'll try to give you some info. Please check
out these references and look at the objects and their properties

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ce/objects.asp
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs..._DOM_Reference

In particular would be the properties of window.navigator (also called
window.clientInformation in IE). Just be sure not to try to access
non-properties of objects. For example, mozilla browsers don't have the
window.clientInformation so use something like the following.
var clientInformation = {};
if( window.clientInformation )
{
if( window.clientInformation.cpuClass )
clientInformation[ 'cpuClass' ] =
window.clientInformation.cpuClass;
}
This will avoid exceptions when trying to query the properties

Rex wrote:

I want to find out as much as I can using JavaScript
about the user's browser and possible about the user himself or
herself.
is there a good guide anywhere on the Internet that explains what
information can be extracted using JavaScript? on various web pages I
see short mentions of variables such as document.referrer and
browser.name as I have yet to find a comprehensive listing of these
variables.

Can someone please point me to a listing of all such variables?

Thanks.

[Rex]

bobzimuta wrote:

Unlike the last poster, I'll try to give you some info. Please check
out these references and look at the objects and their properties

Thank you kindly.

[Randy Webb]

bobzimuta said the following on 7/13/2006 12:04 PM:

Unlike the last poster,

What "last poster"? You mean the one who quoted properly and didn't turn
the post upside down?

I'll try to give you some info.

And the "last poster" didn't? I did, it just wasn't what you thought you
would see is all.

Please check out these references and look at the objects and their properties

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...ce/objects.asp
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs..._DOM_Reference

In particular would be the properties of window.navigator (also called
window.clientInformation in IE).

All of which is unreliable and easily spoofed which makes it useless to
anybody that knows anything about them.

Just be sure not to try to access non-properties of objects.

Feature detection and then you don't *care* what browser it is.

For example, mozilla browsers don't have the
window.clientInformation so use something like the following.
var clientInformation = {};
if( window.clientInformation )

That test, with the code, doesn't do what you think it does.

alert(window.clientInformation) //---[object Object]

Without the var clientInformation, it alerts [object Navigator]

If you want the navigator object, just refer to it directly:

window.navigator

{
if( window.clientInformation.cpuClass )
clientInformation[ 'cpuClass' ] =
window.clientInformation.cpuClass;
}
This will avoid exceptions when trying to query the properties

It is called "feature detection" and when you properly feature detect,
the browser becomes irrelevant. Even when the UA is not a browser at all.

--
Randy
comp.lang.javascript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq & newsgroup weekly
Temporarily at: http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/hikksnotathome/cljfaq/
Javascript Best Practices - http://www.JavascriptToolbox.com/bestpractices/