BrowserDetector

Browser detection capabilities for asp.net core Web API.

Supported frameworks

• .NET6.0
• .NET7.0
• .NET8.0

This library does

1. Browser detection
2. Device type detection
3. Operating System detection

.NET framework 4.7 has Browser property on HttpContext.Request which gives you information about the browser, from where there HTTP request came from. Unfortunately, ASP.NET core does not have this. This package can be used for browser & device detection in your ASP.NET core apps.

Browsers supported

If you do not see a specific browser/os/device type combo, please open an issue

How to use ?

Step 1: Install the BrowserDetector nuget package

Install-Package Shyjus.BrowserDetector

Step 2: Enable the browser detection service by calling AddBrowserDetection method on IServiceCollection in your startup code.

services.AddBrowserDetection();

Step 3: Inject IBrowserDetector to your controller class or view file or middleware and access the Browser property.

Example usage in controller code

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    private readonly IBrowserDetector browserDetector;
    public HomeController(IBrowserDetector browserDetector)
    {
        this.browserDetector = browserDetector;
    }
    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        var browser = this.browserDetector.Browser;
        // Use browser object as needed.

        return View();
    }
}

Example usage in view code

@inject Shyjus.BrowserDetection.IBrowserDetector browserDetector

<h2> @browserDetector.Browser.Name </h2>
<h3> @browserDetector.Browser.Version </h3>
<h3> @browserDetector.Browser.OS </h3>
<h3> @browserDetector.Browser.DeviceType </h3>

Example usage in custom middleware

You can inject the IBrowserDetector to the InvokeAsync method.

public class MyCustomMiddleware
{
    private RequestDelegate next;
    public MyCustomMiddleware(RequestDelegate next)
    {
        this.next = next;
    }
    public async Task InvokeAsync(HttpContext httpContext, IBrowserDetector browserDetector)
    {
        var browser = browserDetector.Browser;

        if (browser.Type == BrowserType.Edge)
        {
            await httpContext.Response.WriteAsync("Have you tried the new chromuim based edge ?");
        }
        else
        {
            await this.next.Invoke(httpContext);
        }
    }
}

Interpreting the Name values returned by IBrowser.Name

• Firefox - Firefox browser.
• EdgeChromium - The new Chromium based Microsoft Edge browser.
• Edge - The legacy Edge browser.
• Safari - The Safari browser.
• Chrome - The Chrome browser.

What is the Perf impact on adding this package ?

I ran benchmarks on Safari and Chrome desktop user agents and those seems to return the results around ~ 1 micro second. Heap allocation varies based on the input.

|         Method |     Mean |
|--------------- |---------:|
| Chrome_Windows | 1.057 us |
| Safari_Windows | 1.093 us |

1 micro second is one millionth of a second.