browscap ini directive not set

Question

I'm using the get_browser() function in an attempt to warn people that their browser doesn't support Javascript. Actually I'm using it to tell them they can use certain parts of a web application I'm building. I've decided to properly use Javascript because I'm tired of listening to developers that are scared of using it and I've seen some great potential in the language. I digress, here is the error.

browscap ini directive not set

Now I'd imagine this means I need somthing set it the php.ini. Can someone give me some direction on this one?

Solution 1

I don't think this is the "best" solution to detect is a browser supports what you need for your website :

• first of all, browsers can lie -- they can send whatever thay want as User-Agent
  • And even if a given version of a support should support what you need, Javascript can still be disabled.
• second, there are more "proper" way to detect what a browser can do or not, when it comes to Javascript.

For the second point, you should test if the browser actually supports what you need -- and not rely on a list such as the browscap one.

Still, to answer your question about browscap : there is a note at the bottom of the manual page for get_browser that says (quoting) :

Note: In order for this to work, your browscap configuration setting in php.ini must point to the correct location of the browscap.ini file on your system. browscap.ini is not bundled with PHP, but you may find an up-to-date » php_browscap.ini file here.
While browscap.ini contains information on many browsers, it relies on user updates to keep the database current. The format of the file is fairly self-explanatory.

So, you have to :

• download the browscap file,
• and set the browscap directive in your php.ini file, so it points to the file you downloaded.

Solution 2

I know this topic is old, but you can use something like:

<noscript>JavaScript must be enabled</noscript>

to display if JavaScript is not enabled.

Solution 3

You can check the browser by using Browser class download it from Github

Configuration

      include(/your-path/Browser.php);
$browser = new Browser();
    if( $browser->getBrowser() == Browser::BROWSER_IE && $browser->getVersion() >= 8 ) 
        {
            echo "Your browser is Internet explorer version 8";                                                                                                                                    
    }

Solution 4

There is a bug in PHP that can also result in this error when the real problem is that the web server can't read the browscap file (e.g., if it's owned by root instead of www-data). See https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=74501

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Comments

[MakuraYami]

And if i cannot access my php.ini file, for example I'm on a webhost? How can i set browsercap location using ini_set()?

[Beniston]

browscap is flagged as PHP_INI_SYSTEM so it cannot be changed using ini_set or through htaccess.

[palerdot]

Can you please explain the best method to detect browsers? Any pointer is appreciated . . .

[Synchro]

To use Browscap in a situation where you don't have access to php.ini, you can use phpbrowscap. Note that the browscap project is currently closed, but is being resurrected.

[Kevin Beal]

@arundex It's more reliable to use feature detection than it is to check what browser it is. stackoverflow.com/questions/1294586/…

[Peter Krauss]

My info.php show that all ok (directive browscap and extra/browscap.ini), but my PHP script that calls get_browser() function say "Warning: get_browser(): browscap ini directive not set".

[2147483647]

This is helpful. Also, if anyone is new to this like me, the <noscript> tag defines an alternate content for users that have disabled scripts in their browser or have a browser that doesn't support script. More in w3schools.com/tags/tag_noscript.asp

[Power Engineering]

you're right! and sadly there's still no fix for this issue. I'm running Apache/MySQL/PHP under Windows (WAMP Server) but unfortunately all the efforts I've done in order to let the ini file be accessible didn't worked...