How to detect in perl if the client is using a mobile browser?

Question

I'm using a CGI script to generate a dynamic webpage. I want the page to load elements differently depending on whether or not the user is using a phone (such as a blackberry) to access the website or a normal browser. Is there an environment detail I can grab to make this decision? What would be the best method of doing this (even if its using javascript and not CGI.)

Answer 1

Use the Perl variable $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'} and the HTTP::BrowserDetect module.

Once you have the determined what browser the client is using (e.g. is it a mobile browser) - then you can make the decision on what to send back to the client (mobile version or desktop version etc)