01 July 2008

Handset Detection (Mobile Browser Sniffing)

Written by Richard Leggett ( )
Published on July 1st, 2008 @ 09:00:08 am, using 113 words, 597 views

Categories: Flash Lite, Mobile

A huge challenge when developing web sites for mobile phones, either as a separate entity, or as a gracefully degraded version of the “desktop” version, is sniffing just what features the device has. This might include support for XHTML, JavaScript 1.5, Flash Lite (standalone or embedded in a page) and so on.

I just caught a post on the Flash Lite Google Group regarding a new site, handsetdetection.com, which provides a free API for sniffing over 7000 devices. The API is available through XML or JSON and the list of features the API documents is exhaustive, from screen size and streaming video support to HTTPS and SVG capability.

Find out more at the website.

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Comment from: Tommy K

Have you heard about WURFL ?
http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/

Permalink 01/07/08 @ 10:59

Comment from: Richard Leggett [Member]

Yes I believe this uses WURFL under the hood.

Permalink 01/07/08 @ 11:04

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