Redirect mobile devices to alternate version of my site

Question

We\'ve got an alternate version of out website ready for mobile devices. The content we serve is different and it works well.

What is the best way to detect which v

Answer 1

Just put this in your header:

<script type="text/javascript">
 <!--
  if (screen.width <= 700) {
  window.location = "http://www.mobile-site.com";
  }
 //-->
</script>

Just about everyone's computer screens are above the threshhold of 700px but this vaule can be changed. There isnt a phone or tablet out there that is above 700px (at least I dont know of any) so all mobile divices will redirect to your mobile site.

Answer 2

media="handheld" doesn't work with modern smartphones like the iphone which pretend to be a desktop browser (uses the screen media type).

http://detectmobilebrowser.com/ Free & open source, has a comprehensive mobile user-agent checker available in many languages - javascript, php, asp.net, ruby, etc.

Answer 3

I don't think there is a good/elegant way to detect if user has his javascript activated.

IMO, the best is to list the user agent : here is a User-Agent list, which seems quite complete (in French, sadly).

Answer 4

An alternative to WURFL is Mobile Detect, a PHP class for detecting:

• Tablet
• Mobile
• iOs
• Android
• Browsers
• And much more

So in case WURFL doesn't do what you need, you can always check this out.

Answer 5

here is the working solution

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

#http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3680463/mobile-redirect-using-htaccess
# Check if mobile=1 is set and set cookie 'mobile' equal to 1
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)mobile=1(&|$)
RewriteRule ^ - [CO=mobile:1:%{HTTP_HOST}]

# Check if mobile=0 is set and set cookie 'mobile' equal to 0
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)mobile=0(&|$)
RewriteRule ^ - [CO=mobile:0:%{HTTP_HOST}]

# cookie can't be set and read in the same request so check
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)mobile=0(&|$)
RewriteRule ^ - [S=1]

# Check if this looks like a mobile device
RewriteCond %{HTTP:x-wap-profile} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "android|blackberry|ipad|iphone|ipod|iemobile|opera mobile|palmos|webos|googlebot-mobile" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Profile}       !^$
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^mobile=0(?:&|$)
# Check if we're not already on the mobile site
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}          !^m\.
# Check to make sure we haven't set the cookie before
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Cookie}        !\mobile=0(;|$)
# Now redirect to the mobile site
RewriteRule ^ http://m.yourdomain.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

# Go back to full site
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^m\.
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (?:^|&)mobile=0(?:&|$)
RewriteRule ^ http://yourdomain.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [NC,L]

RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

Answer 6

You could use a device description database (such as WURFL) which will recognise the client device from the request headers. You can then query that database to decide if the device can handle your site (e.g. support javascript, or is the screen big enough) before deciding whether to redirect them to a different site.

You don't mention your environment, but WURFL supplies APIs for Java and PHP, and maybe others as well. If there's no supplied API, you can still use WURFL, but you'll have to parse and process the XML data yourself.