mobile_browser returning "MSIE" on desktop?

[jdfoxmicro]

Hello,

I'm trying out the cloud server, free edition. I intend for my web server to send a mobile version if a phone is detected, and the full version for a desktop, laptop, or tablet. Pretty standard.

But, just using is_smartphone and is_tablet wasn't enough, because my BlackBerry 8530 didn't trigger either of these. So, I added mobile_browser, and this worked. My logic is this: my site will default to the full version, but if anything comes back for is_smartphone or mobile_browser, it will send the mobile version, unless is_tablet is set, in which case it sends the full version. I have tested it on many computers and devices, new and old, and it's worked well.

But, I found that on Internet Explorer 5.0 on Windows 98, which sends User-Agent string "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 98; DigExt)", it comes back with "MSIE" for mobile_browser. Is this a mistake, or am I misinterpreting what mobile_browser is supposed to be?

Thanks.

Jeffrey Fox

[Elliotfehr]

Jeffrey,

I'm glad to hear that you are trying out the WURFL cloud platform. I would recommend to only use the `is_mobile` and `is_tablet` capabilities to achieve this goal.

Any device that returns `true` for `is_mobile` and false for `is_tablet` will isolate any mobile device that is not a tablet and can be directed to your mobile site. All other traffic could be directed to your desktop site.

Thank you,

Elliot

[jdfoxmicro]

Elliot,

Yours is absolutely the correct answer. I changed my code to send the mobile version only if is_mobile is true and is_tablet is false, and now everything is working correctly.

I had missed the is_mobile setting when selecting the capabilities in the Cloud account setup. The reason is it defaults to showing capabilities under the product_info group, which includes is_smartphone, mobile_browser, and is_tablet, but, strangely, not is_mobile. When I had clicked on the group drop-down list, I saw all kinds of detailed things I didn't think were useful for my basic needs (such as ajax, streaming, wap_push, flash_lite, etc.), so I figured product_info had everything I would need.

I found is_mobile only in the last group, virtual_capabilities. I was previously unaware of this item, and I thought I read the documentation!

Anyway, thank you for your help.

Jeffrey Fox