The code I'm using (on the server side) is based on the $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] variable -- the providers of the code have gone to a bunch of trouble to parse user agents and discern whether or not they count as mobile devices. It is decidedly imperfect, but it does a good job at least for the mobile devices we're seeing so far. In other contexts I also use JavaScript-based detection, but for these functions I'm doing it with the PHP approach. ken -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Rochkind Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2013 3:53 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] directing users to mobile DBs, was RE: [CODE4LIB] Responsive Web Site Live Ah, but this still doesn't answer my question on your part, Mark! How do you detect browser width, especially on the server-side? If it's with Javascript... the method Ken describes, it's not clear to me how javascript logic could get in there exactly. Thus my question. On 1/2/2013 3:51 PM, Mark Pernotto wrote: > I'd be curious to hear the response to Jonathan's question. For the > longest time, I used to determine mobile displays by browser, but it > just got too cluttered. Now I detect browser width to determine > mobile versions. This little trick doesn't play nice with all > frameworks, however, so it's not bullet-proof, but so far, it has > worked well. And on a high level, easy to troubleshoot. > > It wasn't immediately apparent to me if this was a part of a CMS or > not - it's awfully clean, and the usual Joomla/Drupal/Wordpress > identities weren't visible in the source. Really nice work! > > Thanks, > Mark > > > On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Jonathan Rochkind <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> What method do you use to detect mobile-or-not? >> >> >> On 1/2/2013 3:33 PM, Ken Irwin wrote: >>> >>> Sarah asks about how to direct users to mobile versions of databases >>> where appropriate. >>> >>> The way I'm doing it is: >>> 1. All database links are served up from a database table, so the >>> link on our website is http://$OUR_LIBRARY/redirect?$db_id >>> 2. The db-of-dbs knows if there is a mobile specific url (because we >>> put it there...) 3. Detect mobile-or-not as a binary value 4. Serve >>> up the right one as an HTTP header redirect >>> >>> One big exception: EBSCO (which provides a really large number of >>> our >>> databases) handles their mobile access by using the same URL with a >>> different profile name in the url. The redirect script has a special >>> case that says if ($mobile = true and $ebsco = true) { do string >>> replace on the url to change from the desktop url to the mobile url >>> } -- so I don't have to list both versions of the URL in the database. >>> >>> It seems to work out pretty well. >>> >>> Ken >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf >>> Of Sarah Dooley >>> Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2013 3:25 PM >>> To: [log in to unmask] >>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Responsive Web Site Live >>> >>> Very cool--congratulations! >>> >>> In addition to Dave's questions, I'd be curious to know (can't see >>> it since I don't have a login) how you handled directing people to >>> databases that have mobile versions. This is something I've been >>> wondering about for our site down the road and library sites in >>> general--from a responsive site, how to effectively link people out >>> to vendor-provided resources that are either mobile or non-mobile. >>> >>> -Sarah Dooley >>> >>> >> > >