Browscap.ini File

You can declare property definitions for any number of browsers in the Browscap.ini file. You can also set default values to use if the client’s browser is not one of the listed definitions.

For each browser definition, you provide a HTTP User Agent header and the properties and values you wish to associate with that header. For more information on the format of the HTTP User Agent header, refer to the HTTP specification available at http://www.w3.org/.

Syntax

[; comments]

[HTTPUserAgentHeader]

[parent = browserDefinition]

[property1 = value1]

…

[propertyN = valueN]

[Default Browser Capability Settings]

[defaultProperty1 = defaultValue1]

…

[defaultPropertyN = defaultValueN]

Parameters

comments

Any line that starts with a semicolon (;). Comments, which are ignored by the Browser Capabilities component, can occur anywhere in the Browscap.ini file.

HTTPUserAgentHeader

Specifies the HTTP User Agent header to associate with the browser-property value statements specified in propertyN. The Browscap.ini file may contain multiple browser definitions, each one starting with a unique HTTPUserAgentHeader value.

You can use the asterisk (*) character as a wildcard character in the HTTPUserAgentHeader to replace zero or more characters.

For example, if you specified the following string for HTTPUserAgentHeader:

[Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.0;* Windows 95)]

It would match all of the following User Agent headers:

[Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.0; Windows 95)]
[Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.0; AK; Windows 95)]
[Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.0; SK; Windows 95)]
[Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.0; AOL; Windows 95)]

Note The Browser Capabilities component first attempts to match exactly the User Agent header to a value of HTTPUserAgentHeader. If that fails, it attempts to make a match that uses wildcard characters.

If more than one browser definition containing wildcard characters matches the User Agent header, the Browser Capabilities component returns the properties of the first matching definition.

browserDefinition

An optional parameter specifying the HTTP User Agent header-string of a browser to use as the parent browser. The current browser's definition will inherit all of the property values declared in the parent browser's definition. This helps define properties for a new version of a browser, because new versions usually retain most of the properties of the previous release. These inherited property values can be overwritten by explicitly setting a new value for the property by using the syntax propertyN = valueN.

propertyN

An optional parameter specifying the name of the browser property to set. It must start with an alphabetic character and cannot be longer than 255 characters. Each browser definition in the Browscap.ini file can contain as many statements of property values as needed. For example, if your application only needed to know whether or not a user's browser supported VBScript, you would only need one property statement for each browser definition.

The following table lists some possible properties:

Property

Description

ActiveXControls

Specifies whether the browser supports ActiveX™ controls.

backgroundsounds

Specifies whether the browser supports background sounds.

beta

Specifies whether the browser is beta software.

browser

Specifies the name of the browser.

cookies

Specifies whether the browser supports cookies.

frames

Specifies whether the browser supports frames.

javascript

Specifies whether the browser supports JScript™.

platform

Specifies the platform that the browser runs on.

tables

Specifies whether the browser supports tables.

vbscript

Specifies whether the browser supports VBScript.

version

Specifies the version number of the browser.

valueN

An optional parameter specifying the value of propertyN. This value is a string by default. To specify an integer, prefix the value with a number sign (#). To specify a Boolean value, use TRUE or FALSE.

defaultPropertyN

An optional parameter specifying the name of the browser property to which to assign a default value if none of the defined HTTPUserAgentHeader values match the HTTP User Agent header sent by the browser.

defaultValueN

An optional parameter specifying the value of defaultPropertyN. This value is a string by default. To specify an integer, prefix the value with a number sign (#). To specify a Boolean value, use TRUE or FALSE.

Example

In the following example, the parent tag allows the second browser definition to inherit from the first, so that the Microsoft® Internet Explorer 3.01 definition inherits all the properties of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 3.0 definition (eg: frames=TRUE, tables=TRUE, and cookies=TRUE). It adds platform-specific information by adding the line, platform=Win95, and overwrites the version information in the line, version=3.01.

;;ie 3.0
[IE 3.0]
browser=IE
Version=3.0
majorver=#3
minorver=#0
frames=TRUE
tables=TRUE
cookies=TRUE
backgroundsounds=TRUE
vbscript=TRUE
javascript=TRUE
ActiveXControls=TRUE
Win16=False
beta=False
AK=False
SK=False
AOL=False
 
;;ie 3.01
[Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.01*; Windows 95)]
parent=IE 3.0
version=3.01
minorver=01
platform=Win95
 
; Default Browser 
[Default Browser Capability Settings]
browser=Default
frames=FALSE 
tables=TRUE 
cookies=FALSE 
backgroundsounds=FALSE 
vbscript=FALSE 
javascript=FALSE

Property	Description
ActiveXControls	Specifies whether the browser supports ActiveX™ controls.
backgroundsounds	Specifies whether the browser supports background sounds.
beta	Specifies whether the browser is beta software.
browser	Specifies the name of the browser.
cookies	Specifies whether the browser supports cookies.
frames	Specifies whether the browser supports frames.
javascript	Specifies whether the browser supports JScript™.
platform	Specifies the platform that the browser runs on.
tables	Specifies whether the browser supports tables.
vbscript	Specifies whether the browser supports VBScript.
version	Specifies the version number of the browser.