jQuery.browser

jQuery.browser Returns: Map

Description: We recommend against using this property, please try to use feature detection instead (see jQuery.support). Contains flags for the useragent, read from navigator.userAgent. While jQuery.browser will not be removed from future versions of jQuery, every effort to use jQuery.support and proper feature detection should be made.

  • version added: 1.0jQuery.browser

The $.browser property allows us to detect which web browser is accessing the page, as reported by the browser itself. It contains flags for each of the four most prevalent browser classes (Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Webkit, and Opera) as well as version information.

Available flags are:

  • webkit (as of jQuery 1.4)
  • safari (deprecated)
  • opera
  • msie
  • mozilla

This property is available immediately. It is therefore safe to use it to determine whether or not to call $(document).ready(). The $.browser property is deprecated in jQuery 1.3, but there are no immediate plans to remove it.

Because $.browser uses navigator.userAgent to determine the platform, it is vulnerable to spoofing by the user or misrepresentation by the browser itself. It is always best to avoid browser-specific code entirely where possible. The $.support property is available for detection of support for particular features rather than relying on $.browser.

Examples:

Example: Show the browser info. 

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>
  p { color:green; font-weight:bolder; margin:3px 0 0 10px; }
  div { color:blue; margin-left:20px; font-size:14px; }
  span { color:red; }
  </style>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
	<p>Browser info:</p>
<script>
    jQuery.each(jQuery.browser, function(i, val) {
      $("<div>" + i + " : <span>" + val + "</span>")
                .appendTo(document.body);
    });</script>
</body>
</html>

Demo:

Example: Returns true if the current useragent is some version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. 

$.browser.msie

Example: Alerts "this is webkit!" only for webkit browsers 

if ($.browser.webkit) {
    alert("this is webkit!");
 }

Example: Alerts "Do stuff for firefox 3" only for firefox 3 browsers. 

jQuery.each(jQuery.browser, function(i, val) {
   if(i=="mozilla" && jQuery.browser.version.substr(0,3)=="1.9")
      alert("Do stuff for firefox 3")
 });

Example: Set a CSS property to specific browser. 

jQuery.each(jQuery.browser, function(i) {
   if($.browser.msie){
      $("#div ul li").css("display","inline");
   }else{
      $("#div ul li").css("display","inline-table");
   }
 });

jQuery.browser.version Returns: String

Description: The version number of the rendering engine for the user's browser.

  • version added: 1.1.3jQuery.browser.version

Here are some typical results:

  • Internet Explorer: 6.0, 7.0
  • Mozilla/Firefox/Flock/Camino: 1.7.12, 1.8.1.3, 1.9
  • Opera: 9.20
  • Safari/Webkit: 312.8, 418.9

Note that IE8 claims to be 7 in Compatibility View.

Examples:

Example: Returns the browser version. 

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>
  p { color:blue; margin:20px; }
  span { color:red; }
  </style>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
	<p>
  </p>
<script>

    $("p").html("The browser version is: <span>" +
                jQuery.browser.version + "</span>");
</script>
</body>
</html>

Demo:

Example: Alerts the version of IE that is being used 

if ( $.browser.msie ) {
  alert( $.browser.version );
}

Example: Often you only care about the "major number," the whole number. This can be accomplished with JavaScript's built-in parseInt() function: 


if (jQuery.browser.msie) {
  alert(parseInt(jQuery.browser.version));
}