Valid Navigator.AppName values

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  • ima

    Valid Navigator.AppName values

    Where can I find a list of valid names for Navigator.AppNa me?

  • Randy Webb

    #2
    Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

    ima said the following on 9/1/2005 5:56 PM:[color=blue]
    > Where can I find a list of valid names for Navigator.AppNa me?
    >[/color]

    You are not going to find a complete list of potential names that can
    appear in navigator.appNa me (Case Matters).

    My IE6, with this snippet:

    alert(navigator .appName)

    gives me this:

    My Damn Browser

    And I doubt you are going to find that in any list of potential "valid
    names" for navigator.appNa me.
    And with the situation on the web of appName spoofing, that list can't
    be created unless you create a list of all potential combinations of
    alphanumeric characters up to, oh, say 50 characters. Which puts that
    list at approximately 1.4536656221467 72e+81 possible entries.

    Why are you after the appName though?

    --
    Randy
    comp.lang.javas cript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq & newsgroup weekly

    Comment

    • Martin Kurz

      #3
      Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

      ima schrieb:[color=blue]
      > Where can I find a list of valid names for Navigator.AppNa me?[/color]

      Well, I know these three:

      * Netscape
      * Opera
      * Microsoft Internet Explorer

      But what these strings do say about the used browser? Nothing at all. If there's
      "Microsoft Internet Explorer" as Navigator.AppNa me - well then it can be any
      browser, maybe really an IE, maybe a firefox, maybe an opera, maybe something
      else. Netscape? Can be allmost any browser and opera either - and the same for
      every other name too. Navigator.AppNa me is just a string without any usefull
      information in it.

      If you intend to detect the used browser, you have to check for the differences
      in JS-Implementation.

      Comment

      • Lee

        #4
        Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

        ima said:[color=blue]
        >
        >Where can I find a list of valid names for Navigator.AppNa me?
        >[/color]
        You can't.
        That's like asking for a list of valid user names.

        Comment

        • Gérard Talbot

          #5
          Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

          ima wrote :[color=blue]
          > Where can I find a list of valid names for Navigator.AppNa me?
          >[/color]

          Using Web Standards in Your Web Pages
          Developing Cross Browser/Cross Platform Pages:
          Browser identification approach (aka "browser sniffing"): not best, not
          reliable approach

          "major problem with this approach is that the browser identity can be
          'spoofed' because, in many modern browsers, the navigator.appVe rsion
          (and navigator.appNa me) and navigator.userA gent string properties are
          user configurable strings.
          A user or browser distributor can put what they want in the
          navigator.userA gent string"

          The MDN Web Docs site provides information about Open Web technologies including HTML, CSS, and APIs for both Web sites and progressive web apps.


          Instead use object/feature detection support for cross-browser code as
          explained:

          Using Object/Feature detection approach: best and overall most reliable
          The MDN Web Docs site provides information about Open Web technologies including HTML, CSS, and APIs for both Web sites and progressive web apps.


          A Strategy That Works: Object/Feature Detecting by comp.lang.javas cript
          newsgroup FAQ notes


          Browser detection - No; Object detection - Yes by Peter-Paul Koch


          Gérard
          --
          remove blah to email me

          Comment

          • Randy Webb

            #6
            Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

            Martin Kurz said the following on 9/1/2005 6:29 PM:
            [color=blue]
            > ima schrieb:
            >[color=green]
            >>Where can I find a list of valid names for Navigator.AppNa me?[/color]
            >
            >
            > Well, I know these three:
            >
            > * Netscape
            > * Opera
            > * Microsoft Internet Explorer
            >
            > But what these strings do say about the used browser? Nothing at all. If there's
            > "Microsoft Internet Explorer" as Navigator.AppNa me - well then it can be any
            > browser, maybe really an IE, maybe a firefox, maybe an opera, maybe something
            > else. Netscape? Can be allmost any browser and opera either - and the same for
            > every other name too. Navigator.AppNa me is just a string without any usefull
            > information in it.
            >
            > If you intend to detect the used browser, you have to check for the differences
            > in JS-Implementation.[/color]

            That won't tell the "used browser", it will tell you what
            objects/methods the browser supports, but not what the browser is.

            --
            Randy
            comp.lang.javas cript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq & newsgroup weekly

            Comment

            • Danny@Kendal

              #7
              Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

              "ima" <imacoffman2@ya hoo.com> wrote in message
              news:1125611794 .524905.202190@ g43g2000cwa.goo glegroups.com.. .[color=blue]
              > Where can I find a list of valid names for Navigator.AppNa me?[/color]

              Try Googling for "user agent strings".


              Comment

              • Randy Webb

                #8
                Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

                Danny@Kendal said the following on 9/2/2005 4:47 AM:[color=blue]
                > "ima" <imacoffman2@ya hoo.com> wrote in message
                > news:1125611794 .524905.202190@ g43g2000cwa.goo glegroups.com.. .
                >[color=green]
                >>Where can I find a list of valid names for Navigator.AppNa me?[/color]
                >
                >
                > Try Googling for "user agent strings".[/color]

                That won't give you the strings that are contained in the appName, it
                will give you discussions and possible string that are in the
                navigator.userA gent string.

                --
                Randy
                comp.lang.javas cript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq & newsgroup weekly

                Comment

                • Danny@Kendal

                  #9
                  Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

                  "Randy Webb" <HikksNotAtHome @aol.com> wrote in message
                  news:dZ6dnfS5qY 7SvoXenZ2dnUVZ_ tGdnZ2d@comcast .com...[color=blue]
                  > Danny@Kendal said the following on 9/2/2005 4:47 AM:[color=green]
                  >> "ima" <imacoffman2@ya hoo.com> wrote in message
                  >> news:1125611794 .524905.202190@ g43g2000cwa.goo glegroups.com.. .
                  >>[color=darkred]
                  >>>Where can I find a list of valid names for Navigator.AppNa me?[/color]
                  >>
                  >>
                  >> Try Googling for "user agent strings".[/color]
                  >
                  > That won't give you the strings that are contained in the appName, it will
                  > give you discussions and possible string that are in the
                  > navigator.userA gent string.[/color]

                  Doh! Maybe I should have Googled for navigator.appNa me first.


                  Comment

                  • ima

                    #10
                    Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

                    OK... OK... Point taken. I'm not a professional and I've forgotten
                    the vast majority of javascript that I managed to learn about 10 years
                    ago. Now, it seems that I'm the most qualified of a small
                    organization to handle our web site. My intention to use
                    Navigator.AppNa me was simply to redirect newer browsers to a cleaner
                    set of pages (that use css) . I found a "free to use" copy and past
                    script to do that but I didn't know the Navigator.AppNa me values to
                    check for other than "Microsoft Internet Explorer" and "Netscape". I
                    could guess but I would never know if I guessed correctly or not.

                    If anyone here knows of another, more reliable script to redirect the
                    newer browsers to the css pages, I'd love to hear all about it.

                    Comment

                    • Randy Webb

                      #11
                      Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

                      ima said the following on 9/2/2005 11:57 AM:
                      [color=blue]
                      > OK... OK... Point taken. I'm not a professional and I've forgotten
                      > the vast majority of javascript that I managed to learn about 10 years
                      > ago. Now, it seems that I'm the most qualified of a small
                      > organization to handle our web site. My intention to use
                      > Navigator.AppNa me was simply to redirect newer browsers to a cleaner
                      > set of pages (that use css) . I found a "free to use" copy and past
                      > script to do that but I didn't know the Navigator.AppNa me values to
                      > check for other than "Microsoft Internet Explorer" and "Netscape". I
                      > could guess but I would never know if I guessed correctly or not.
                      >
                      > If anyone here knows of another, more reliable script to redirect the
                      > newer browsers to the css pages, I'd love to hear all about it.
                      >[/color]

                      You start by quoting what you are replying to.

                      Then, you go to comp.infosystem s.www.authoring.stylesheets and ask about
                      making your CSS degrade in the absence of CSS support.

                      But, if the criteria is "CSS Support", then you test for just that, CSS
                      Support.

                      Question:

                      User has CSS disabled in IE6. What page do they get?

                      --
                      Randy
                      comp.lang.javas cript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq & newsgroup weekly

                      Comment

                      • Gérard Talbot

                        #12
                        Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

                        ima wrote :[color=blue]
                        > OK... OK... Point taken. I'm not a professional and I've forgotten
                        > the vast majority of javascript that I managed to learn about 10 years
                        > ago. Now, it seems that I'm the most qualified of a small
                        > organization to handle our web site. My intention to use
                        > Navigator.AppNa me was simply to redirect newer browsers to a cleaner
                        > set of pages (that use css) .[/color]

                        Site branching is not what I would recommend. Site branching involves
                        considerably more time, efforts, energy, testing, finances, etc.. to
                        develop, maintain and is not what a very wide majority of professional
                        web developers do or would recommend. What they use mostly is what is
                        referred as graceful degradation of pages for user agents which do not
                        support well certain CSS properties or simply do not support CSS. Your
                        webpages should look reasonably (as best as they can with valid markup
                        code) well in older user agents or in user agents not supporting CSS
                        (like text browsers, screen readers). Graceful degradation and
                        accessibility guidelines, priorities underline the importance that
                        content should be accessible for any web-aware software and that
                        navigation (links) should be functional.

                        I found a "free to use" copy and past[color=blue]
                        > script to do that but I didn't know the Navigator.AppNa me values to
                        > check for other than "Microsoft Internet Explorer" and "Netscape". I
                        > could guess but I would never know if I guessed correctly or not.
                        >
                        > If anyone here knows of another, more reliable script to redirect the
                        > newer browsers to the css pages, I'd love to hear all about it.
                        >[/color]

                        ima, what I replied to you is among the best possible resources
                        available addressing your issue. I can not find anything better than
                        what I posted and I doubt anyone could.

                        CSS1 is widely supported; about 98% of all user agents on use on the web
                        support reasonably well more than 50% of CSS1 properties. With time,
                        these percentage increase. What's important for you is to start reading
                        good references and FAQ on web authoring. But there is a wide consensus
                        among web authors that
                        1- user agent string detection (aka browser sniffing) is bad,
                        unreliable, often wrong, a nightmare to update and maintain
                        2- object/feature detection is better, more reliable, etc..
                        I'm merely mentioning what is in the FAQ of this newsgroup:
                        A Strategy That Works: Object/Feature Detecting by comp.lang.javas cript
                        newsgroup FAQ notes


                        Gérard
                        --
                        remove blah to email me

                        Comment

                        • Gérard Talbot

                          #13
                          Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

                          Randy Webb wrote :[color=blue]
                          > Question:
                          >
                          > User has CSS disabled in IE6. What page do they get?[/color]

                          Just curious. How can an user disable CSS? Is there a simple button or
                          setting that does that??
                          Thanks.

                          Gérard
                          --
                          remove blah to email me

                          Comment

                          • Randy Webb

                            #14
                            Re: Valid Navigator.AppNa me values

                            Gérard Talbot said the following on 9/3/2005 8:02 PM:[color=blue]
                            > Randy Webb wrote :
                            >[color=green]
                            >> Question:
                            >>
                            >> User has CSS disabled in IE6. What page do they get?[/color]
                            >
                            >
                            > Just curious. How can an user disable CSS? Is there a simple button or
                            > setting that does that??
                            > Thanks.
                            >[/color]

                            Tools>Internet Options>Accessi bility

                            Ignore colors specified on Web pages
                            Ignore font styles specified on Web pages
                            Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages

                            And you can go even further and "Format documents using my style sheet"
                            and write your own CSS file to format documents the way they suit you best.

                            And that is just in IE6. Most (if not all) modern browsers give the user
                            control over how a web page displays in a browser.

                            --
                            Randy
                            comp.lang.javas cript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq & newsgroup weekly

                            Comment

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