Is jQuery $.browser Deprecated?

Question

Can someone tell me if I am correct in believing that jQuery's $.browser is/has been deprecated?

Will my existing implementations continue to work? If not, is there an easy to implement alternative.

Answer 1

Second Question

Will my existing implementations continue to work? If not, is there an easy to implement alternative.

The answer is yes, but not without a little work.

$.browser is an official plugin which was included in older versions of jQuery, so like any plugin you can simple copy it and incorporate it into your project or you can simply add it to the end of any jQuery release.

I have extracted the code for you incase you wish to use it.

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// Limit scope pollution from any deprecated API (function() {      var matched, browser;  // Use of jQuery.browser is frowned upon. // More details: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.browser // jQuery.uaMatch maintained for back-compat     jQuery.uaMatch = function( ua ) {         ua = ua.toLowerCase();          var match = /(chrome)[ \/]([\w.]+)/.exec( ua ) ||             /(webkit)[ \/]([\w.]+)/.exec( ua ) ||             /(opera)(?:.*version|)[ \/]([\w.]+)/.exec( ua ) ||             /(msie) ([\w.]+)/.exec( ua ) ||             ua.indexOf("compatible") < 0 && /(mozilla)(?:.*? rv:([\w.]+)|)/.exec( ua ) ||             [];          return {             browser: match[ 1 ] || "",             version: match[ 2 ] || "0"         };     };      matched = jQuery.uaMatch( navigator.userAgent );     browser = {};      if ( matched.browser ) {         browser[ matched.browser ] = true;         browser.version = matched.version;     }  // Chrome is Webkit, but Webkit is also Safari.     if ( browser.chrome ) {         browser.webkit = true;     } else if ( browser.webkit ) {         browser.safari = true;     }      jQuery.browser = browser;      jQuery.sub = function() {         function jQuerySub( selector, context ) {             return new jQuerySub.fn.init( selector, context );         }         jQuery.extend( true, jQuerySub, this );         jQuerySub.superclass = this;         jQuerySub.fn = jQuerySub.prototype = this();         jQuerySub.fn.constructor = jQuerySub;         jQuerySub.sub = this.sub;         jQuerySub.fn.init = function init( selector, context ) {             if ( context && context instanceof jQuery && !(context instanceof jQuerySub) ) {                 context = jQuerySub( context );             }              return jQuery.fn.init.call( this, selector, context, rootjQuerySub );         };         jQuerySub.fn.init.prototype = jQuerySub.fn;         var rootjQuerySub = jQuerySub(document);         return jQuerySub;     };  })(); 

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If you're asking why anyone would need a depreciated plugin, I have prepared the following answer.

First and foremost the answer is compatibility. Since jQuery is plugin based, some developers opted to use $.browser and with the latest releases of jQuery which doesn't include $.browser all those plugins where rendered useless.

jQuery did release a migration plugin, which was created for developers to detect whether their plugin's used any depreciated dependencies such as $.browser.

Although this helped developers patch their plugin's. jQuery dropped $.browser completely so the above fix is probably the only solution until your developers patch or incorporate the above.

About: jQuery.browser

Answer 2

From the documentation:

The $.browser property is deprecated in jQuery 1.3, and its functionality may be moved to a team-supported plugin in a future release of jQuery.

So, yes, it is deprecated, but your existing implementations will continue to work. If the functionality is removed, it will likely be easily accessible using a plugin.

As to whether there is an alternative... The answer is "yes, probably". It is far, far better to do feature detection using $.support rather than browser detection: detect the actual feature you need, not the browser that provides it. Most important features that vary from browser to browser are detected with that.

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Update 16 February 2013: In jQuery 1.9, this feature was removed (docs). It is far better not to use it. If you really, really must use its functionality, you can restore it with the jQuery Migrate plugin.