browser.msie error after update to jQuery 1.9.1

Question

Since $.browser is deprecated, here is an alternative solution:

/**
 * Returns the version of Internet Explorer or a -1
 * (indicating the use of another browser).
 */
function getInternetExplorerVersion()
{
    var rv = -1; // Return value assumes failure.

    if (navigator.appName == 'Microsoft Internet Explorer')
    {
        var ua = navigator.userAgent;
        var re  = new RegExp("MSIE ([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})");
        if (re.exec(ua) != null)
            rv = parseFloat( RegExp.$1 );
    }

    return rv;
}

function checkVersion()
{
    var msg = "You're not using Internet Explorer.";
    var ver = getInternetExplorerVersion();

    if ( ver > -1 )
    {
        if ( ver >= 8.0 ) 
            msg = "You're using a recent copy of Internet Explorer."
        else
            msg = "You should upgrade your copy of Internet Explorer.";
    }

    alert( msg );
}

Source

However, the reason that its deprecated is because jQuery wants you to use feature detection instead.

An example:

$("p").html("This frame uses the W3C box model: <span>" +
        jQuery.support.boxModel + "</span>");

And last but not least, the most reliable way to check IE versions:

// ----------------------------------------------------------
// A short snippet for detecting versions of IE in JavaScript
// without resorting to user-agent sniffing
// ----------------------------------------------------------
// If you're not in IE (or IE version is less than 5) then:
//     ie === undefined
// If you're in IE (>=5) then you can determine which version:
//     ie === 7; // IE7
// Thus, to detect IE:
//     if (ie) {}
// And to detect the version:
//     ie === 6 // IE6
//     ie > 7 // IE8, IE9 ...
//     ie < 9 // Anything less than IE9
// ----------------------------------------------------------

// UPDATE: Now using Live NodeList idea from @jdalton

var ie = (function(){

    var undef,
        v = 3,
        div = document.createElement('div'),
        all = div.getElementsByTagName('i');

    while (
        div.innerHTML = '<!--[if gt IE ' + (++v) + ']><i></i><![endif]-->',
        all[0]
    );

    return v > 4 ? v : undef;

}());

$.browser was deprecated in version 1.3 and removed in 1.9

You can verify this by viewing the documentation.

For simple IE detection I tend to use:

(/msie|trident/i).test(navigator.userAgent)

Visit the Microsoft Developer Network to learn about the IE useragent: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms537503.aspx

The jQuery.browser options was deprecated earlier and removed in 1.9 release along with a lot of other deprecated items like .live.

For projects and external libraries which want to upgrade to 1.9 but still want to support these features jQuery have release a migration plugin for the time being.

If you need backward compatibility you can use migration plugin.