How can you detect the version of a browser?

Question

I\'ve been searching around for code that would let me detect if the user visiting the website has Firefox 3 or 4. All I have found is code to detect the type of browser but

Answer 1

I have made a script in ASP code to detect browser, browser version, OS and OS version. The reason for me to do this in ASP was because i want to store the data in a log-database. So I had to detect the browser serverside.

Here is the code:

on error resume next
ua = lcase(Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_USER_AGENT"))
moz = instr(ua,"mozilla")  
ffx = instr(ua,"firefox")  
saf = instr(ua,"safari")
crm = instr(ua,"chrome") 
max = instr(ua,"maxthon") 
opr = instr(ua,"opera")
ie4 = instr(ua,"msie 4") 
ie5 = instr(ua,"msie 5") 
ie6 = instr(ua,"msie 6") 
ie7 = instr(ua,"msie 7") 
ie8 = instr(ua,"trident/4.0")
ie9 = instr(ua,"trident/5.0")

if moz>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Mozilla"
    BrVer = mid(ua,moz+8,(instr(moz,ua," ")-(moz+8)))
end if
if ffx>0 then 
    BrowserType = "FireFox"
    BrVer = mid(ua,ffx+8)
end if
if saf>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Safari"
    BrVerPlass = instr(ua,"version")
    BrVer = mid(ua,BrVerPlass+8,(instr(BrVerPlass,ua," ")-(BrVerPlass+8)))
end if
if crm>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Chrome"
    BrVer = mid(ua,crm+7,(instr(crm,ua," ")-(crm+7)))
end if
if max>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Maxthon"
    BrVer = mid(ua,max+8,(instr(max,ua," ")-(max+8)))
end if
if opr>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Opera"
    BrVerPlass = instr(ua,"presto")
    BrVer = mid(ua,BrVerPlass+7,(instr(BrVerPlass,ua," ")-(BrVerPlass+7)))
end if
if ie4>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Internet Explorer"
    BrVer = "4"
end if
if ie5>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Internet Explorer"
    BrVer = "5"
end if
if ie6>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Internet Explorer"
    BrVer = "6"
end if
if ie7>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Internet Explorer"
    BrVer = "7"
end if
if ie8>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Internet Explorer"
    BrVer = "8"
    if ie7>0 then BrVer = BrVer & " (in IE7 compability mode)"
end if
if ie9>0 then 
    BrowserType = "Internet Explorer"
    BrVer = "9"
    if ie7>0 then BrVer = BrVer & " (in IE7 compability mode)"
    if ie8>0 then BrVer = BrVer & " (in IE8 compability mode)"
end if

OSSel = mid(ua,instr(ua,"(")+1,(instr(ua,";")-instr(ua,"("))-1)
OSver = mid(ua,instr(ua,";")+1,(instr(ua,")")-instr(ua,";"))-1)

if BrowserType = "Internet Explorer" then
    OSStart = instr(ua,";")
    OSStart = instr(OSStart+1,ua,";")        
    OSStopp = instr(OSStart+1,ua,";")
    OSsel = mid(ua,OSStart+2,(OSStopp-OSStart)-2)
end if

    Select case OSsel
        case "windows nt 6.1"
            OS = "Windows"
            OSver = "7"
        case "windows nt 6.0"
            OS = "Windows"
            OSver = "Vista"
        case "windows nt 5.2"
            OS = "Windows"
            OSver = "Srv 2003 / XP x64"
        case "windows nt 5.1"
            OS = "Windows"
            OSver = "XP"
        case else
            OS = OSSel
    End select

Response.write "<br>" & ua & "<br>" & BrowserType & "<br>" & BrVer & "<br>" & OS & "<br>" & OSver & "<br>"

'Use the variables here for whatever you need........

Answer 2

Adding my own implementation of Hermann's answer. I needed OS detection so that's been added. Also includes some ES6 code (because we have a transpiler) that you might need to ES5-ify.

detectClient() {
    let nav = navigator.appVersion,
        os = 'unknown',
        client = (() => {
            let agent = navigator.userAgent,
                engine = agent.match(/(opera|chrome|safari|firefox|msie|trident(?=\/))\/?\s*(\d+)/i) || [],
                build;

            if(/trident/i.test(engine[1])){
                build = /\brv[ :]+(\d+)/g.exec(agent) || [];
                return {browser:'IE', version:(build[1] || '')};
            }

            if(engine[1] === 'Chrome'){
                build = agent.match(/\bOPR\/(\d+)/);

                if(build !== null) {
                    return {browser: 'Opera', version: build[1]};
                }
            }

            engine = engine[2] ? [engine[1], engine[2]] : [navigator.appName, nav, '-?'];

            if((build = agent.match(/version\/(\d+)/i)) !== null) {
                engine.splice(1, 1, build[1]);
            }

            return {
              browser: engine[0],
              version: engine[1]
            };
        })();

    switch (true) {
        case nav.indexOf('Win') > -1:
            os = 'Windows';
        break;
        case nav.indexOf('Mac') > -1:
            os = 'MacOS';
        break;
        case nav.indexOf('X11') > -1:
            os = 'UNIX';
        break;
        case nav.indexOf('Linux') > -1:
            os = 'Linux';
        break;
    }        

    client.os = os;
    return client;
}

Returns: Object {browser: "Chrome", version: "50", os: "UNIX"}

Answer 3

For any PWA application using angular you can put the code to check if browser is supported or not in body section of index.html -

<body>
    <div id="browser"></div>
    <script>
        var operabrowser = true;
        operabrowser = (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Opera Mini') > -1);
        if (operabrowser) {
            txt = "<p>Browser not supported use different browser...</p>";
            document.getElementById("browser").innerHTML = txt;
        }
    </script>
</body>

Answer 4

I wrote a version detector based on Hermann Ingjaldsson's answer, but more robust and which returns an object with name/version data in it. It covers the major browsers but I don't bother with the plethora of mobile ones and minor ones:

function getBrowserData(nav) {
    var data = {};

    var ua = data.uaString = nav.userAgent;
    var browserMatch = ua.match(/(opera|chrome|safari|firefox|msie|trident(?=\/))\/?\s*([\d\.]+)/i) || [];
    if (browserMatch[1]) { browserMatch[1] = browserMatch[1].toLowerCase(); }
    var operaMatch = browserMatch[1] === 'chrome';
    if (operaMatch) { operaMatch = ua.match(/\bOPR\/([\d\.]+)/); }

    if (/trident/i.test(browserMatch[1])) {
        var msieMatch = /\brv[ :]+([\d\.]+)/g.exec(ua) || [];
        data.name = 'msie';
        data.version = msieMatch[1];
    }
    else if (operaMatch) {
        data.name = 'opera';
        data.version = operaMatch[1];
    }
    else if (browserMatch[1] === 'safari') {
        var safariVersionMatch = ua.match(/version\/([\d\.]+)/i);
        data.name = 'safari';
        data.version = safariVersionMatch[1];
    }
    else {
        data.name = browserMatch[1];
        data.version = browserMatch[2];
    }

    var versionParts = [];
    if (data.version) {
        var versionPartsMatch = data.version.match(/(\d+)/g) || [];
        for (var i=0; i < versionPartsMatch.length; i++) {
            versionParts.push(versionPartsMatch[i]);
        }
        if (versionParts.length > 0) { data.majorVersion = versionParts[0]; }
    }
    data.name = data.name || '(unknown browser name)';
    data.version = {
        full: data.version || '(unknown full browser version)',
        parts: versionParts,
        major: versionParts.length > 0 ? versionParts[0] : '(unknown major browser version)'
    };

    return data;
};

It can then be used like this:

var brData = getBrowserData(window.navigator || navigator);
console.log('name: ' + brData.name);
console.log('major version: ' + brData.version.major);
// etc.

Answer 5

This is a Update on Fzs2 & kennebec For New Edge Chromium

function get_browser() {
    var ua=navigator.userAgent,tem,M=ua.match(/(opera|chrome|safari|firefox|msie|trident(?=\/))\/?\s*(\d+)/i) || []; 
    if(/trident/i.test(M[1])){
        tem=/\brv[ :]+(\d+)/g.exec(ua) || []; 
        return {name:'IE',version:(tem[1]||'')};
        }   
    if(M[1]==='Chrome'){
        tem=ua.match(/\bEdg\/(\d+)/)
        if(tem!=null)   {return {name:'Edge(Chromium)', version:tem[1]};}
        tem=ua.match(/\bOPR\/(\d+)/)
        if(tem!=null)   {return {name:'Opera', version:tem[1]};}
        }   
    M=M[2]? [M[1], M[2]]: [navigator.appName, navigator.appVersion, '-?'];
    if((tem=ua.match(/version\/(\d+)/i))!=null) {M.splice(1,1,tem[1]);}
    return {
      name: M[0],
      version: M[1]
    };
 }

var browser=get_browser(); // browser.name = 'Edge(Chromium)'
                           // browser.version = '86'

console.log(browser);

Answer 6

This page seems to have a pretty nice snippet which only uses the appString and appVersion property as a last resort as it claims them to be unreliable with certain browsers. The code on the page is as follows:

var nVer = navigator.appVersion;
var nAgt = navigator.userAgent;
var browserName  = navigator.appName;
var fullVersion  = ''+parseFloat(navigator.appVersion); 
var majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion,10);
var nameOffset,verOffset,ix;

// In Opera 15+, the true version is after "OPR/" 
if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("OPR/"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Opera";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+4);
}
// In older Opera, the true version is after "Opera" or after "Version"
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Opera"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Opera";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+6);
 if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Version"))!=-1) 
   fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+8);
}
// In MSIE, the true version is after "MSIE" in userAgent
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("MSIE"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Microsoft Internet Explorer";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+5);
}
// In Chrome, the true version is after "Chrome" 
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Chrome"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Chrome";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+7);
}
// In Safari, the true version is after "Safari" or after "Version" 
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Safari"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Safari";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+7);
 if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Version"))!=-1) 
   fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+8);
}
// In Firefox, the true version is after "Firefox" 
else if ((verOffset=nAgt.indexOf("Firefox"))!=-1) {
 browserName = "Firefox";
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+8);
}
// In most other browsers, "name/version" is at the end of userAgent 
else if ( (nameOffset=nAgt.lastIndexOf(' ')+1) < 
          (verOffset=nAgt.lastIndexOf('/')) ) 
{
 browserName = nAgt.substring(nameOffset,verOffset);
 fullVersion = nAgt.substring(verOffset+1);
 if (browserName.toLowerCase()==browserName.toUpperCase()) {
  browserName = navigator.appName;
 }
}
// trim the fullVersion string at semicolon/space if present
if ((ix=fullVersion.indexOf(";"))!=-1)
   fullVersion=fullVersion.substring(0,ix);
if ((ix=fullVersion.indexOf(" "))!=-1)
   fullVersion=fullVersion.substring(0,ix);

majorVersion = parseInt(''+fullVersion,10);
if (isNaN(majorVersion)) {
 fullVersion  = ''+parseFloat(navigator.appVersion); 
 majorVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion,10);
}

document.write(''
 +'Browser name  = '+browserName+'<br>'
 +'Full version  = '+fullVersion+'<br>'
 +'Major version = '+majorVersion+'<br>'
 +'navigator.appName = '+navigator.appName+'<br>'
 +'navigator.userAgent = '+navigator.userAgent+'<br>'
)