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What's Covered

This tutorial illustrates how to append a CSV file containing User-Agent strings with IsMobile, PlatformName and PlatformVersion properties. The following aspects of the API are covered:

  • How to perform a User-Agent match.
  • How to reuse resources to perform subsequent matching.
  • How to retrieve match results for a specific property.
  • How to append a property value to a CSV file.

Code and Explanation

Offline processing example of using 51Degrees device detection. The example shows how to:

  1. Fetch a pointer to the 51Degrees device detection provider instance. This is instantiated on server startup and uses settings from php.ini.

    												
    $provider = FiftyOneDegreesPatternV3::provider_get();
    
    												

  • Open an input file with a list of User-Agents, and an output file. The output folder must be in the same directory as this page and have write permissions.

    									
    $file_in = fopen("20000 User Agents.csv", "r");
    $file_out = fopen($outputFolder."/".$outputFile, "w");
    
    									
  • Write a header to the output file with the property names in '|' separated CSV format ('|' separated because some User-Agents contain commas)

    									
    fwrite($file_out, "User-Agent");
    foreach ($properties as $property) {
    	fwrite($file_out, "|".$property);
    }
    fwrite($file_out, "\n");
    
    									
  • For the first 20 User-Agents in the input file, perform a match then write the User-Agent along with the values for chosen properties to the CSV.

    									
    while( my $userAgent = <$file_in>) {
    	chomp $userAgent;
    	my $match = $provider->getMatch($userAgent);
    	print file_out $userAgent;
    	foreach $property (@$properties) {
    		print file_out "|".$match->getValue($property);
    	}
    	print file_out "\n";
    	last if $. == 20;
    }
    
    									
    This example assumes you have the 51Degrees PHP API installed correctly, and have FiftyOneDegreesPatternV3.php and "20000 User Agents.csv" in this directory. The output directory must also exist and have write permissions.

    Full Source File
    												
    require("../pattern/FiftyOneDegreesPatternV3.php");
    
    /*
    Initialises the device detection provider with settings from php.ini.
    A Lite data file is included. For more info see:
    <a href="https://51degrees.com/compare-data-options">compare data options
    </a>
    */
    
    $provider = FiftyOneDegreesPatternV3::provider_get();
    
    $inputFile = "20000 User Agents.csv";
    $outputFile = "offlineProcessingOutput.csv";
    $outputFolder = "output";
    
    // Fetches an array of properties from the php.ini file.
    
    $iniProperties = ini_get('FiftyOneDegreesPatternV3.property_list');
    $properties = explode(",", $iniProperties);
    
    echo "Starting Offline Processing.<br>\n";
    
    // Opens input and output files, writes a header to the output file containing
    // the column titles. Then reads the first 20 User-Agents from the input
    // file, runs a match for each and writes results to the output file.
    
    $file_in = fopen($inputFile, "r");
    $file_out = fopen($outputFolder."/".$outputFile, "w");
    
    fwrite($file_out, "User-Agent");
    foreach ($properties as $property) {
        fwrite($file_out, "|".$property);
    }
    fwrite($file_out, "\n");
    
    for ($i=0;$i<20;$i++) {
        $userAgent = trim(fgets($file_in), "\n");
        $match = $provider->getMatch($userAgent);
        fwrite($file_out, $userAgent);
        foreach ($properties as $property) {
            fwrite($file_out, "|".$match->getValue($property));
        }
        fwrite($file_out, "\n");
    }
    fclose($file_in);
    fclose($file_out);
    
    echo "Output Written to ".getcwd()."/".$outputFolder."/".$outputFile;
    //Snipped End
    ?>
    
    
    												
    Full Source File

  • Summary

    Offline device detection is frequently required for a variety of reasons such as generating reports. The example is based on an actual support request where several properties had to be added to the CSV file before it could be passed on for another department to use.

    This tutorial covered how to use the detector offline to append the first 20 lines of a CSV file with Lite properties: IsMobile , PlatformName and PlatformVersion . Using a Premium or an Enterprise data file gives you access to a far greater number of properties including HardwareVendor , PriceBand , ScreenInchesWidth , IsCrawler and more. A full list of properties and the data file version they are present in can be viewed in the Property Dictionary .