Rails - Jul 2005 - Checking to make sure user has "ajax ready" browser

Hey guys,

I have a application written in rails that is used by various
professors and assistants at different universities. I released the
app yesterday to a pool of beta testers to get some feedback, and
about 25% of them do not have the latest versions of firefox, safari,
or IE.

I''ve seen other sites use a redirect page, and I was wondering how to
implement this in rails. I suspect it has something to do with
grabbing the user agent data and checking it.

Any help on this issue would be great.

Thanks,
Jin

The make-or-break component in ajax is XMLHttpRequest, so instead of
checking user-agents, just check to see if xmlhttprequest is
available.  If you''re using prototype, you could do something like

if(!Ajax.getTransport()) {
  window.location = ''errorpage'';
}

If your site relies on other functionality that older browsers don''t
have, you could check for it too.  The important thing is, don''t check
user agent strings; check functionality.

Tyler

On 7/7/05, Jin Lee <jinslee-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> Hey guys,
> 
> I have a application written in rails that is used by various
> professors and assistants at different universities. I released the
> app yesterday to a pool of beta testers to get some feedback, and
> about 25% of them do not have the latest versions of firefox, safari,
> or IE.
> 
> I''ve seen other sites use a redirect page, and I was wondering how
to
> implement this in rails. I suspect it has something to do with
> grabbing the user agent data and checking it.
> 
> Any help on this issue would be great.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jin
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

On 7/7/05, Tyler Kiley
<tyler.kiley-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> The make-or-break component in ajax is XMLHttpRequest, so instead of
> checking user-agents, just check to see if xmlhttprequest is
> available.  If you''re using prototype, you could do something like
> 
> if(!Ajax.getTransport()) {
>  window.location = ''errorpage'';
> }
> 
> If your site relies on other functionality that older browsers
don''t
> have, you could check for it too.  The important thing is, don''t
check
> user agent strings; check functionality.
How about a method for displaying an error when JavaScript is turned off?

-- 
Dennis Sutch
dennis-+mObuC4wx48AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org

You mean like <noscript></noscript> ???

On 7/7/05, Dennis Sutch <dsutch-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> On 7/7/05, Tyler Kiley
<tyler.kiley-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > The make-or-break component in ajax is XMLHttpRequest, so instead of
> > checking user-agents, just check to see if xmlhttprequest is
> > available.  If you''re using prototype, you could do something
like
> >
> > if(!Ajax.getTransport()) {
> >  window.location = ''errorpage'';
> > }
> >
> > If your site relies on other functionality that older browsers
don''t
> > have, you could check for it too.  The important thing is,
don''t check
> > user agent strings; check functionality.
> 
> How about a method for displaying an error when JavaScript is turned off?
> 
> --
> Dennis Sutch
> dennis-+mObuC4wx48AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> 

-- 
"So long, and thanks for all the fish"

Jeff Wood

Jeff Wood wrote:
>You mean like <noscript></noscript> ???
>  
>
Or have a div that alerts to the need for js but have it hidden by an 
on_load

so if they have javascript, they would never see it...



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