How to detect browser using angularjs? - angularjs

Question

I am new to angularjs. How can I detect userAgent in angularjs. Is it possible to use that in controller? Tried something like below but no luck!
var browserVersion = int((/msie (\d+)/.exec(lowercase(navigator.userAgent)) || [])[1]);
I need to detect IE9 specifically!

Answer 1

Like Eliran Malka asked, why do you need to check for IE 9?
Detecting browser make and version is generally a bad smell. This generally means that you there is a bigger problem with the code if you need JavaScript to detect specific versions of browser.
There are genuine cases where a feature won't work, like say WebSockets isn't supported in IE 8 or 9. This should be solved by checking for WebSocket support, and applying a polyfill if there is no native support.
This should be done with a library like Modernizr.
That being said, you can easily create service that would return the browser. There are valid cases where a feature exists in a browser but the implementation is outdated or broken. Modernizr is not appropriate for these cases.
app.service('browser', ['$window', function($window) {
return function() {
var userAgent = $window.navigator.userAgent;
var browsers = {chrome: /chrome/i, safari: /safari/i, firefox: /firefox/i, ie: /internet explorer/i};
for(var key in browsers) {
if (browsers[key].test(userAgent)) {
return key;
}
};
return 'unknown';
}
}]);
Fixed typo broswers
Note: This is just an example of how to create a service in angular that will sniff the userAgent string. This is just a code example that is not expected to work in production and report all browsers in all situations.
UPDATE
It is probably best to use a third party library like https://github.com/ded/bowser or https://github.com/darcyclarke/Detect.js. These libs place an object on the window named bowser or detect respectively.
You can then expose this to the Angular IoC Container like this:
angular.module('yourModule').value('bowser', bowser);
Or
detectFactory.$inject = ['$window'];
function detectFactory($window) {
return detect.parse($window.navigator.userAgent);
}
angular.module('yourModule').factory('detect', detectFactory);
You would then inject one of these the usual way, and use the API provided by the lib. If you choose to use another lib that instead uses a constructor method, you would create a factory that instantiates it:
function someLibFactory() {
return new SomeLib();
}
angular.module('yourModule').factory('someLib', someLibFactory);
You would then inject this into your controllers and services the normal way.
If the library you are injecting does not exactly match your requirements, you may want to employ the Adapter Pattern where you create a class/constructor with the exact methods you need.
In this example we just need to test for IE 9, and we are going to use the bowser lib above.
BrowserAdapter.$inject = ['bowser']; // bring in lib
function BrowserAdapter(bowser) {
this.bowser = bowser;
}
BrowserAdapter.prototype.isIe9 = function() {
return this.bowser.msie && this.browser.version == 9;
}
angular.module('yourModule').service('browserAdapter', BrowserAdapter);
Now in a controller or service you can inject the browserAdapter and just do if (browserAdapter.isIe9) { // do something }
If later you wanted to use detect instead of bowser, the changes in your code would be isolated to the BrowserAdapter.
UPDATE
In reality these values never change. IF you load the page in IE 9 it will never become Chrome 44. So instead of registering the BrowserAdapter as a service, just put the result in a value or constant.
angular.module('app').value('isIe9', broswerAdapter.isIe9);

Answer 2

Angular library uses document.documentMode to identify IE . It holds major version number for IE, or NaN/undefined if User Agent is not IE.
/**
* documentMode is an IE-only property
* http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/cc196988(v=vs.85).aspx
*/
var msie = document.documentMode;
https://github.com/angular/angular.js/blob/v1.5.0/src/Angular.js#L167-L171
Example with $document (angular wrapper for window.document)
// var msie = document.documentMode;
var msie = $document[0].documentMode;
// if is IE (documentMode contains IE version)
if (msie) {
// IE logic here
if (msie === 9) {
// IE 9 logic here
}
}

Answer 3

you should use conditional comments
<!--[if IE 9]>
<script type="text/javascript">
window.isIE9 = true;
</script>
<![endif]-->
You can then check for $window.isIE9 in your controllers.

Answer 4

Not sure why you specify that it has to be within Angular. It's easily accomplished through JavaScript. Look at the navigator object.
Just open up your console and inspect navigator. It seems what you're specifically looking for is .userAgent or .appVersion.
I don't have IE9 installed, but you could try this following code
//Detect if IE 9
if(navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 9.")!=-1)

Answer 5

You can easily use the "ng-device-detector" module.
https://github.com/srfrnk/ng-device-detector
var app = angular.module('myapp', ["ng.deviceDetector"]);
app.controller('DeviceCtrl', ["$scope","deviceDetector",function($scope,deviceDetector) {
console.log("browser: ", deviceDetector.browser);
console.log("browser version: ", deviceDetector.browser_version);
console.log("device: ", deviceDetector.device);
}]);

Answer 6

So, you can declare more utilities for angular by create file with content (I follow RGraph Library)
(function(window, angular, undefined) {'use strict';
var agl = angular || {};
var ua = navigator.userAgent;
agl.ISFF = ua.indexOf('Firefox') != -1;
agl.ISOPERA = ua.indexOf('Opera') != -1;
agl.ISCHROME = ua.indexOf('Chrome') != -1;
agl.ISSAFARI = ua.indexOf('Safari') != -1 && !agl.ISCHROME;
agl.ISWEBKIT = ua.indexOf('WebKit') != -1;
agl.ISIE = ua.indexOf('Trident') > 0 || navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE') > 0;
agl.ISIE6 = ua.indexOf('MSIE 6') > 0;
agl.ISIE7 = ua.indexOf('MSIE 7') > 0;
agl.ISIE8 = ua.indexOf('MSIE 8') > 0;
agl.ISIE9 = ua.indexOf('MSIE 9') > 0;
agl.ISIE10 = ua.indexOf('MSIE 10') > 0;
agl.ISOLD = agl.ISIE6 || agl.ISIE7 || agl.ISIE8; // MUST be here
agl.ISIE11UP = ua.indexOf('MSIE') == -1 && ua.indexOf('Trident') > 0;
agl.ISIE10UP = agl.ISIE10 || agl.ISIE11UP;
agl.ISIE9UP = agl.ISIE9 || agl.ISIE10UP;
})(window, window.angular);
after that, in your function use can use it like
function SampleController($scope){
$scope.click = function () {
if(angular.ISCHROME) {
alert("is chrome");
}
}

Answer 7

I modified the above technique which was close to what I wanted for angular and turned it into a service :-). I included ie9 because I was having some issues in my angularjs app, but could be something I'm doing, so feel free to take it out.
angular.module('myModule').service('browserDetectionService', function() {
return {
isCompatible: function () {
var browserInfo = navigator.userAgent;
var browserFlags = {};
browserFlags.ISFF = browserInfo.indexOf('Firefox') != -1;
browserFlags.ISOPERA = browserInfo.indexOf('Opera') != -1;
browserFlags.ISCHROME = browserInfo.indexOf('Chrome') != -1;
browserFlags.ISSAFARI = browserInfo.indexOf('Safari') != -1 && !browserFlags.ISCHROME;
browserFlags.ISWEBKIT = browserInfo.indexOf('WebKit') != -1;
browserFlags.ISIE = browserInfo.indexOf('Trident') > 0 || navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE') > 0;
browserFlags.ISIE6 = browserInfo.indexOf('MSIE 6') > 0;
browserFlags.ISIE7 = browserInfo.indexOf('MSIE 7') > 0;
browserFlags.ISIE8 = browserInfo.indexOf('MSIE 8') > 0;
browserFlags.ISIE9 = browserInfo.indexOf('MSIE 9') > 0;
browserFlags.ISIE10 = browserInfo.indexOf('MSIE 10') > 0;
browserFlags.ISOLD = browserFlags.ISIE6 || browserFlags.ISIE7 || browserFlags.ISIE8 || browserFlags.ISIE9; // MUST be here
browserFlags.ISIE11UP = browserInfo.indexOf('MSIE') == -1 && browserInfo.indexOf('Trident') > 0;
browserFlags.ISIE10UP = browserFlags.ISIE10 || browserFlags.ISIE11UP;
browserFlags.ISIE9UP = browserFlags.ISIE9 || browserFlags.ISIE10UP;
return !browserFlags.ISOLD;
}
};
});

Answer 8

There is a library ng-device-detector which makes detecting entities like browser, os easy.
Here is tutorial that explains how to use this library. Detect OS, browser and device in AngularJS
ngDeviceDetector
You need to add re-tree.js and ng-device-detector.js scripts into your html
Inject "ng.deviceDetector" as dependency in your module.
Then inject "deviceDetector" service provided by the library into your controller or factory where ever you want the data.
"deviceDetector" contains all data regarding browser, os and device.

Answer 9

Why not use document.documentMode only available under IE:
var doc = $window.document;
if (!!doc.documentMode)
{
if (doc.documentMode === 10)
{
doc.documentElement.className += ' isIE isIE10';
}
else if (doc.documentMode === 11)
{
doc.documentElement.className += ' isIE isIE11';
}
// etc.
}

Answer 10

Browser sniffing should generally be avoided, feature detection is much better, but sometimes you have to do it. For instance in my case Windows 8 Tablets overlaps the browser window with a soft keyboard; Ridiculous I know, but sometimes you have to deal with reality.
So you would measure 'navigator.userAgent' as with regular JavaScript (Please don't sink into the habit of treating Angular as something distinct from JavaScript, use plain JavaScript if possible it will lead to less future refactoring).
However for testing you want to use injected objects rather than global ones. Since '$location' doesn't contain the userAgent the simple trick is to use '$window.location.userAgent'. You can now write tests that inject a $window stub with whatever userAgent you wan't to simulate.
I haven't used it for years, but Modernizr's a good source of code for checking features. https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/issues/878#issuecomment-41448059

Answer 11

Detection ie9+
var userAgent, ieReg, ie;
userAgent = $window.navigator.userAgent;
ieReg = /msie|Trident.*rv[ :]*11\./gi;
ie = ieReg.test(userAgent);
if (ie) {
// js for ie9,10 and 11
}