Use/depend on user-agents package for better analysis of user agent strings?

[wodow]

I've recently been using Flask-Mobility for a project or two (so thank you!) and quickly reached the point where I (a) needed more power, but (b) wanted to keep using the Flask-Mobility API/interface.

What do you think about using user-agents ( https://github.com/selwin/python-user-agents/ ) to support finer-grained and more accurate analysis if UAs, in place of the current regex approach?

I've just forked the repo to create a proof-of-concept: https://github.com/wodow/flask-mobility/commit/6b92262314a994db31c0e95674b6808eed215fe3#diff-9da72ae617e53ab1abe6152bb885ed15

[rehandalal]

sounds like an interesting idea. just a couple of thoughts:

• I don't want to go overboard littering the request object with new attributes. Maybe there's a cleaner way of implementing what's there.
• Your fork removes the ability to force the mobile view using a cookie. I don't want to lose that.
• Would likely want to create new decorators or extend the functionality of the current decorators to accommodate some of the new features.

also feel free to submit a pull request so that it's easier to compare the changes.

[wodow]

Thanks for the fast reply!

I should have been clearer about the removal of the cookies code (and the lack of a PR) - I did it to simplify the proof-of-concept (which I have running locally).

I am more than happy to submit a proper, cleanly edited PR with additional decorators if you are interested.

My main question is: are you happy to have a dependency on user-agent? Or should it be optional somehow?

Re the new attributes on the request object: I considered introducing a second level of access, e.g. request.MOBILITY.TABLET or request.MOBILITY.is_mobile but this would not be backwards-compatible with existing deployments using request.MOBILE.

Is that an issue? A compromise would be to introduce something like request.MOBILITY but retain request.MOBILE (which would be aliased to e.g. request.MOBILITY.is_mobile).

[rehandalal]

Sorry about the delay getting back to you.

I'm fine with making user-agent a dependency. It would be nice to have it be optional, but that's not a deal breaker for me.

I would like to ensure this stays backwards compatible so I like the idea of having request.MOBILE and request.MOBILITY.

Thanks!

[wodow]

Thanks for the thumbs up. I will aim to pull something when I next make a related change in the client webapp, so can't be sure of a timeline just yet.

I will try to make user-agent optional as a secondary goal.

[helielson]

I thought about make the same thing using the user-agent lib. It's really an interesting idea. What about the PR @wodow? Are you still think to integrate it? Let me know if you are needing some help.

[rehandalal]

@helielson i might get around to adding this in the next few weeks