Depending on each ones needs, we often need ways to detect if our visitors are using an iPad, a smartphone or any other mobile device in order to make out website responsive and even faster by reducing data load. The following are a bunch of classes and snippets you can use to accomplish that, either on the back-end (server side) or on the front-end (client side), depending on each development situation, making it easier to detect mobile devices.
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.
You may consider this script as being part of the RESS (Responsive Web Design with Server-Side Component) movement. You can find out more on the topic by reading these articles: Improve Mobile Support With Server-Side-Enhanced Responsive Design and RESS: Responsive Design + Server Side Components.
<?php
// Include and instantiate the class.
require_once 'Mobile_Detect.php';
$detect = new Mobile_Detect;
// Any mobile device (phones or tablets).
if ( $detect->isMobile() ) {
}
// Any tablet device.
if( $detect->isTablet() ){
}
// Exclude tablets.
if( $detect->isMobile() && !$detect->isTablet() ){
}
// Check for a specific platform with the help of the magic methods:
if( $detect->isiOS() ){
}
if( $detect->isAndroidOS() ){
}
?>More examples, including detecting the version of the device can be found on the project page. What I like about this class, besides being lightweight is the fact that it is already integrated in 3rd party plugins, which is great if you’re planning to use it in CMS platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento etc.
Detect Mobile Browser is a collection of open source mobile phone detection snippets that can be used in Apache, ASP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, C#, IIS, JSP, JavaScript, jQuery, Lasso, nginx, node.js, PHP, Perl, Python, and Rails.
/**
* jQuery.browser.mobile (http://detectmobilebrowser.com/)
*
* jQuery.browser.mobile will be true if the browser is a mobile device
*
**/
(function(a){(jQuery.browser=jQuery.browser||{}).mobile=/(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\-(n|u)|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\-5|g\-mo|go(\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\-(m|p|t)|hei\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\-c|ht(c(\-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\-|\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/(k|l|u)|50|54|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\-g|qa\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\-[2-7]|i\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\-|oo|p\-)|sdk\/|se(c(\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\-|shar|sie(\-|m)|sk\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\-|v\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\-|tdg\-|tel(i|m)|tim\-|t\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\-|m3|m5)|tx\-9|up(\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera);
A very good website that I enjoy using for testing websites in all sort of browsers, mobile devices and tablets is BrowserStack. What I like is the fact that you actually boot on a Windows machine if, for instance, you want to test how your website responsiveness will perform on a specific version of Internet Explorer. They improved considerably the speed of the testing process lately and now, I can boot and make tests even faster than I used to, so thumbs up for this.