Agent Class

The agent class allows you to retrieve information about browser type, version, platform or operating system, etc, based on the clients User Agent string.

Configuration

The agent class uses the PHP function get_browser(), which attempts to determine the capabilities of the user's browser, by looking up the browser's information in the browscap.ini file.

The following global configuration values can be defined:

Param Type Default Description
browscap array 
array(
	'enabled' => true,
	'url'     => 'http://browsers.garykeith.com/stream.asp?BrowsCapINI',
	'method' => 'wrapper',
	'proxy' => array(
		'host' => null,
		'port' => null,
		'auth' => 'none',
		'username' => null,
		'password' => null,
	),
	'file'   => '/tmp/php_browscap.ini',
)
 browscap.ini retrieval configuration.
cache array 
array(
	'driver'     => '',
	'expiry'     => 604800,
	'identifier' => 'fuel.agent',
)
 browscap.ini caching configuration.
Browscap.ini configuration

If PHP has not been configured to use the browscap.ini file, the agent class will retrieve the file from the location defined in the config/agent.php config file, and cached locally for re-use. This cache will be updated on a regular basis, based on the timeout value defined in the configuration.

Param Type Default Description
enabled boolean 
true
 Enable download of the browscap.ini file. If disabled, and PHP has not been configured to the browscap functionality through get_browser(), browser detection is disabled, and the agent class will return 'unknown'.
method string 
'wrapper'
 Method used to retrieve the browscap.ini file. Supported methods are:
  • 'wrapper': This method uses file_get_contents(). This is the preferred option, but it might be disabled by your hosting provider.
  • 'curl': This method curl extensions. You can use this in case the 'wrapper' method doesn't work.
  • 'local': Use an external method to download the browscap.ini file (for example a cron job).
  • 'sockets': reserved for future use
url string 
'http://browsers.garykeith.com/stream.asp?BrowsCapINI'
 For the methods 'wrapper', 'curl' and 'sockets', the url to download an update of the browscap.ini file.
proxy array 
array( ... )
 See below.
file string 
'/tmp/php_browscap.ini'
 For the method 'local', the name and location of the browscap.ini file on a local storage system.
Proxy configuration

If your server requires the use of a forward proxy to access the internet, you can configure that as part of the browscap settings.

Param Type Default Description
host string 
null
 Hostname or IP address of your forward proxy. Do NOT include a scheme, so 'proxy.example.org', not 'http://proxy.example.org'.
port integer 
null
 TCP port your proxy listens on. Common ports are 3128 (Squid) and 8080 (commercial proxies, ISA-2006+) or 80 (ISA-2004).
auth string 
'none'
 Authentication method for your proxy. Supported methods are:
  • 'none': Your proxy does not require authentication.
  • 'basic': Basic authentication. Supported by both 'curl' and 'wrapper' methods.
  • 'ntlm': NTLM/Windows authentication. Only supported by the 'curl' method.
username string 
null
 Username required for proxy authentication.
password string 
null
 Password required for proxy authentication.
Cache configuration

It the agent class is configured to process a browscap.ini file, it will cache the result of both the ini file parser and individual user agent requests in order to increase the response time of the class. These configuration settings determine how the data is cached. For more information, see the Cache class documentation.

Param Type Default Description
driver string 
''
 Cache driver to use to cache the agent data. If you leave this empty, the default cache driver, configured in the cache configuration, will be used.
expiry integer 
604800
 Number of seconds until the cached data expires. By default, this is 7 days, since the browscap.ini file doesn't change that often. It is recommended not to refresh more frequent than once a day.
The minumum setting is 7200 seconds (two hours), your server will be banned from the browscap website if you download more often!
identifier string 
'fuel.agent'
 Prefix to name of the cache.