[javascript] Browser detection in JavaScript?

How do I determine the exact browser and version using JavaScript?

This question is related to javascript browser-detection

The answer is


This little library may help you. But be aware that browser detection is not always the solution.


I recommend using the tiny javascript library Bowser, yes no r. It is based on the navigator.userAgent and quite well tested for all browsers including iphone, android etc.

https://github.com/ded/bowser

You can use simply say:

if (bowser.msie && bowser.version <= 6) {
  alert('Hello IE');
} else if (bowser.firefox){
  alert('Hello Foxy');
} else if (bowser.chrome){
  alert('Hello Chrome');
} else if (bowser.safari){
  alert('Hello Safari');
} else if(bowser.iphone || bowser.android){
  alert('Hello mobile');
}

All the information about web browser is contained in navigator object. The name and version are there.

var appname = window.navigator.appName;

Source: javascript browser detection


This is what I'm using:

var ua = navigator.userAgent;
var info = {
        browser: /Edge\/\d+/.test(ua) ? 'ed' : /MSIE 9/.test(ua) ? 'ie9' : /MSIE 10/.test(ua) ? 'ie10' : /MSIE 11/.test(ua) ? 'ie11' : /MSIE\s\d/.test(ua) ? 'ie?' : /rv\:11/.test(ua) ? 'ie11' : /Firefox\W\d/.test(ua) ? 'ff' : /Chrom(e|ium)\W\d|CriOS\W\d/.test(ua) ? 'gc' : /\bSafari\W\d/.test(ua) ? 'sa' : /\bOpera\W\d/.test(ua) ? 'op' : /\bOPR\W\d/i.test(ua) ? 'op' : typeof MSPointerEvent !== 'undefined' ? 'ie?' : '',
        os: /Windows NT 10/.test(ua) ? "win10" : /Windows NT 6\.0/.test(ua) ? "winvista" : /Windows NT 6\.1/.test(ua) ? "win7" : /Windows NT 6\.\d/.test(ua) ? "win8" : /Windows NT 5\.1/.test(ua) ? "winxp" : /Windows NT [1-5]\./.test(ua) ? "winnt" : /Mac/.test(ua) ? "mac" : /Linux/.test(ua) ? "linux" : /X11/.test(ua) ? "nix" : "",
        touch: 'ontouchstart' in document.documentElement,
        mobile: /IEMobile|Windows Phone|Lumia/i.test(ua) ? 'w' : /iPhone|iP[oa]d/.test(ua) ? 'i' : /Android/.test(ua) ? 'a' : /BlackBerry|PlayBook|BB10/.test(ua) ? 'b' : /Mobile Safari/.test(ua) ? 's' : /webOS|Mobile|Tablet|Opera Mini|\bCrMo\/|Opera Mobi/i.test(ua) ? 1 : 0,
        tablet: /Tablet|iPad/i.test(ua),
};

info properties:

  • browser: gc for Google Chrome; ie9-ie11 for IE; ie? for old or unknown IE; ed for Edge; ff for Firefox; sa for Safari; op for Opera.
  • os: mac win7 win8 win10 winnt winxp winvista linux nix
  • mobile: a for Android; i for iOS (iPhone iPad); w for Windows Phone; b for Blackberry; s for undetected mobile running Safari; 1 for other undetected mobile; 0 for non-mobile
  • touch: true for touch enabled devices, including touch laptops/notebooks that has both mouse and touch together; false for no touch support
  • tablet: true or false

https://jsfiddle.net/oriadam/ncb4n882/


This is something I wrote to get client info

var ua = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
var check = function(r) {
    return r.test(ua);
};
var DOC = document;
var isStrict = DOC.compatMode == "CSS1Compat";
var isOpera = check(/opera/);
var isChrome = check(/chrome/);
var isWebKit = check(/webkit/);
var isSafari = !isChrome && check(/safari/);
var isSafari2 = isSafari && check(/applewebkit\/4/); // unique to
// Safari 2
var isSafari3 = isSafari && check(/version\/3/);
var isSafari4 = isSafari && check(/version\/4/);
var isIE = !isOpera && check(/msie/);
var isIE7 = isIE && check(/msie 7/);
var isIE8 = isIE && check(/msie 8/);
var isIE6 = isIE && !isIE7 && !isIE8;
var isGecko = !isWebKit && check(/gecko/);
var isGecko2 = isGecko && check(/rv:1\.8/);
var isGecko3 = isGecko && check(/rv:1\.9/);
var isBorderBox = isIE && !isStrict;
var isWindows = check(/windows|win32/);
var isMac = check(/macintosh|mac os x/);
var isAir = check(/adobeair/);
var isLinux = check(/linux/);
var isSecure = /^https/i.test(window.location.protocol);
var isIE7InIE8 = isIE7 && DOC.documentMode == 7;

var jsType = '', browserType = '', browserVersion = '', osName = '';
var ua = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
var check = function(r) {
    return r.test(ua);
};

if(isWindows){
    osName = 'Windows';

    if(check(/windows nt/)){
        var start = ua.indexOf('windows nt');
        var end = ua.indexOf(';', start);
        osName = ua.substring(start, end);
    }
} else {
    osName = isMac ? 'Mac' : isLinux ? 'Linux' : 'Other';
} 

if(isIE){
    browserType = 'IE';
    jsType = 'IE';

    var versionStart = ua.indexOf('msie') + 5;
    var versionEnd = ua.indexOf(';', versionStart);
    browserVersion = ua.substring(versionStart, versionEnd);

    jsType = isIE6 ? 'IE6' : isIE7 ? 'IE7' : isIE8 ? 'IE8' : 'IE';
} else if (isGecko){
    var isFF =  check(/firefox/);
    browserType = isFF ? 'Firefox' : 'Others';;
    jsType = isGecko2 ? 'Gecko2' : isGecko3 ? 'Gecko3' : 'Gecko';

    if(isFF){
        var versionStart = ua.indexOf('firefox') + 8;
        var versionEnd = ua.indexOf(' ', versionStart);
        if(versionEnd == -1){
            versionEnd = ua.length;
        }
        browserVersion = ua.substring(versionStart, versionEnd);
    }
} else if(isChrome){
    browserType = 'Chrome';
    jsType = isWebKit ? 'Web Kit' : 'Other';

    var versionStart = ua.indexOf('chrome') + 7;
    var versionEnd = ua.indexOf(' ', versionStart);
    browserVersion = ua.substring(versionStart, versionEnd);
}else{
    browserType = isOpera ? 'Opera' : isSafari ? 'Safari' : '';
}

Below code snippet will show how how you can show UI elemnts depends on IE version and browser

$(document).ready(function () {

var msiVersion = GetMSIieversion();
if ((msiVersion <= 8) && (msiVersion != false)) {

    //Show UI elements specific to IE version 8 or low

    } else {
    //Show UI elements specific to IE version greater than 8 and for other browser other than IE,,ie..Chrome,Mozila..etc
    }
}
);

Below code will give how we can get IE version

function GetMSIieversion() {

var ua = window.navigator.userAgent;
var msie = ua.indexOf('MSIE ');
if (msie > 0) {
    // IE 10 or older => return version number
    return parseInt(ua.substring(msie + 5, ua.indexOf('.', msie)), 10);
}

var trident = ua.indexOf('Trident/');
if (trident > 0) {
    // IE 11 => return version number
    var rv = ua.indexOf('rv:');
    return parseInt(ua.substring(rv + 3, ua.indexOf('.', rv)), 10);
}

var edge = ua.indexOf('Edge/');
if (edge > 0) {
    // Edge (IE 12+) => return version number
    return parseInt(ua.substring(edge + 5, ua.indexOf('.', edge)), 10);
}

// other browser like Chrome,Mozila..etc
return false;

}

This tells you all the details about your browser and the version of it.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<div id="example"></div>

<script>

txt = "<p>Browser CodeName: " + navigator.appCodeName + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Browser Name: " + navigator.appName + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Browser Version: " + navigator.appVersion + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Cookies Enabled: " + navigator.cookieEnabled + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>Platform: " + navigator.platform + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>User-agent header: " + navigator.userAgent + "</p>";
txt+= "<p>User-agent language: " + navigator.systemLanguage + "</p>";

document.getElementById("example").innerHTML=txt;

</script>

</body>
</html>

var browser = navigator.appName;
var version = navigator.appVersion;

Note, however, that both will not necessarily reflect the truth. Many browsers can be set to mask as other browsers. So, for example, you can't always be sure if a user is actually surfing with IE6 or with Opera that pretends to be IE6.


Here's how to detect browsers in 2016, including Microsoft Edge, Safari 10 and detection of Blink:

// Opera 8.0+ (UA detection to detect Blink/v8-powered Opera)
isOpera = !!window.opera || navigator.userAgent.indexOf(' OPR/') >= 0;
// Firefox 1.0+
isFirefox = typeof InstallTrigger !== 'undefined';
// Safari 3.0+
isSafari = /constructor/i.test(window.HTMLElement) || (function (p) { return p.toString() === "[object SafariRemoteNotification]"; })(!window['safari'] || safari.pushNotification);
// Internet Explorer 6-11
isIE = /*@cc_on!@*/false || !!document.documentMode;
// Edge 20+
isEdge = !isIE && !!window.StyleMedia;
// Chrome 1+
isChrome = !!window.chrome && !!window.chrome.webstore;
// Blink engine detection
isBlink = (isChrome || isOpera) && !!window.CSS;

The beauty of this approach is that it relies on browser engine properties, so it covers even derivative browsers, such as Yandex or Vivaldi, which are practically compatible with the major browsers whose engines they use. The exception is Opera, which relies on user agent sniffing, but today (i.e. ver. 15 and up) even Opera is itself only a shell for Blink.


Here is how I do custom CSS for Internet Explorer:

In my JavaScript file:

function isIE () {
      var myNav = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
      return (myNav.indexOf('msie') != -1) ? parseInt(myNav.split('msie')[1]) : false;
}

jQuery(document).ready(function(){
    if(var_isIE){
            if(var_isIE == 10){
                jQuery("html").addClass("ie10");
            }
            if(var_isIE == 8){
                jQuery("html").addClass("ie8");
                // you can also call here some function to disable things that 
                //are not supported in IE, or override browser default styles.
            }
        }
    });

And then in my CSS file, y define each different style:

.ie10 .some-class span{
    .......
}
.ie8 .some-class span{
    .......
}

You could use the jQuery library to detect the browser version.

Example:

jQuery.browser.version

However, this only makes sense if you are also using other functions of jQuery. Adding an entire library just to detect the browser seems like overkill to me.

More information: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.browser/

(you have to scroll down a bit)


With jQuery:

$.browser

gives you somthing like:

Object {chrome: true, version: "26.0.1410.63", webkit: true}

I found something interesting and quicker way. IE supports navigator.systemLanguage which returns "en-US" where other browsers return undefined.

<script>
    var lang = navigator.systemLanguage;
    if (lang!='en-US'){document.write("Well, this is not internet explorer");}
    else{document.write("This is internet explorer");}
</script>

Sadly, IE11 no longer has MSIE in its navigator.userAgent:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; OfficeLiveConnector.1.5; OfficeLivePatch.1.3; .NET4.0C; BRI/2; BOIE9;ENUS; rv:11.0) like Gecko

As to why you want to know which browser you're using, it's because every browser has its own set of bugs, and you end up implementing browser and version specific workarounds, or tell the user to use a different browser!


I make this small function, hope it helps. Here you can find the latest version browserDetection

function detectBrowser(userAgent){
  var chrome  = /.*(Chrome\/).*(Safari\/).*/g;
  var firefox = /.*(Firefox\/).*/g;
  var safari  = /.*(Version\/).*(Safari\/).*/g;
  var opera   = /.*(Chrome\/).*(Safari\/).*(OPR\/).*/g

  if(opera.exec(userAgent))
    return "Opera"
  if(chrome.exec(userAgent))
    return "Chrome"
  if(safari.exec(userAgent))
    return "Safari"
  if(firefox.exec(userAgent))
    return "Firefox"
}

Some times we need simple method to check if the browser is IE or not. This is how it could be:

 var isMSIE = (/trident/i).test(navigator.userAgent);

 if(isMSIE)
 {
  /* do something for ie */
 }
 else
 {
  /* do something else */
 }

or simplified siva's method:

 if(!!navigator.systemLanguage)
 {
  /* do something for ie */
 }
 else
 {
  /* do something else */
 }

MSIE v.11 check:

if( (/trident/i).test(navigator.userAgent) && (/rv:/i).test(navigator.userAgent) )
{
  /* do something for ie 11 */
}

other IE browsers contain MSIE string in their userAgent property and could be catched by it.


I know I'm WAY late to this question, but figured I'd throw my snippets up here. A lot of the answers here are OK, and, as one points out, it's generally best to use feature detection rather than rely on the userAgent string. However, if you are going to go that route, I've written a complete snippet, as well as an alternate jQuery implementation to replace the depricated $.browser.


Vanilla JS

My first snippet simply adds four properties to the navigator object: browser, version, mobile, & webkit.

jsFiddle


/** navigator [extended]
 *  Simply extends Browsers navigator Object to include browser name, version number, and mobile type (if available).
 *
 *  @property {String} browser The name of the browser.
 *  @property {Double} version The current Browser version number.
 *  @property {String|Boolean} mobile Will be `false` if is not found to be mobile device. Else, will be best guess Name of Mobile Device (not to be confused with browser name)
 *  @property {Boolean} webkit If is webkit or not.
 */
;(function(){function c(){try{switch(!0){case /MSIE|Trident/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"MSIE";case /Chrome/.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Chrome";case /Opera/.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Opera";case /Kindle|Silk|KFTT|KFOT|KFJWA|KFJWI|KFSOWI|KFTHWA|KFTHWI|KFAPWA|KFAPWI/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return/Silk/i.test(navigator.userAgent)?"Silk":"Kindle";case /BlackBerry/.test(navigator.userAgent):return"BlackBerry";case /PlayBook/.test(navigator.userAgent):return"PlayBook";case /BB[0-9]{1,}; Touch/.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Blackberry";
case /Android/.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Android";case /Safari/.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Safari";case /Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Mozilla";case /Nokia/.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Nokia"}}catch(a){console.debug("ERROR:setBrowser\t",a)}}function d(){try{switch(!0){case /Sony[^ ]*/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Sony";case /RIM Tablet/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"RIM Tablet";case /BlackBerry/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"BlackBerry";case /iPhone/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"iPhone";
case /iPad/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"iPad";case /iPod/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"iPod";case /Opera Mini/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Opera Mini";case /IEMobile/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"IEMobile";case /BB[0-9]{1,}; Touch/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"BlackBerry";case /Nokia/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Nokia";case /Android/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return"Android"}}catch(a){console.debug("ERROR:setMobile\t",a)}return!1}function e(){try{switch(!0){case /MSIE|Trident/i.test(navigator.userAgent):return/Trident/i.test(navigator.userAgent)&&
/rv:([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})/.test(navigator.userAgent)?parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.match(/rv:([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})/)[1].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,"")):/MSIE/i.test(navigator.userAgent)&&0<parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("MSIE")[1].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,""))?parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("MSIE")[1].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,"")):"Edge";case /Chrome/.test(navigator.userAgent):return parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("Chrome/")[1].split("Safari")[0].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,""));case /Opera/.test(navigator.userAgent):return parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("Version/")[1].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,
""));case /Kindle|Silk|KFTT|KFOT|KFJWA|KFJWI|KFSOWI|KFTHWA|KFTHWI|KFAPWA|KFAPWI/i.test(navigator.userAgent):if(/Silk/i.test(navigator.userAgent))return parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("Silk/")[1].split("Safari")[0].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,""));if(/Kindle/i.test(navigator.userAgent)&&/Version/i.test(navigator.userAgent))return parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("Version/")[1].split("Safari")[0].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,""));case /BlackBerry/.test(navigator.userAgent):return parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("/")[1].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,
""));case /PlayBook/.test(navigator.userAgent):case /BB[0-9]{1,}; Touch/.test(navigator.userAgent):case /Safari/.test(navigator.userAgent):return parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("Version/")[1].split("Safari")[0].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,""));case /Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent):return parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split(/Firefox\//i)[1].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,""));case /Android/.test(navigator.userAgent):return parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("Version/")[1].split("Safari")[0].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,
""));case /Nokia/.test(navigator.userAgent):return parseFloat(navigator.userAgent.split("Browser")[1].replace(/[^0-9\.]/g,""))}}catch(a){console.debug("ERROR:setVersion\t",a)}}a:{try{if(navigator&&navigator.userAgent){navigator.browser=c();navigator.mobile=d();navigator.version=e();var b;b:{try{b=/WebKit/i.test(navigator.userAgent);break b}catch(a){console.debug("ERROR:setWebkit\t",a)}b=void 0}navigator.webkit=b;break a}}catch(a){}throw Error("Browser does not support `navigator` Object |OR| has undefined `userAgent` property.");
}})();
/*  simple c & p of above   */


var isOpera = !!window.opera || navigator.userAgent.indexOf(' OPR/') >= 0;
    // Opera 8.0+ (UA detection to detect Blink/v8-powered Opera)
var isFirefox = typeof InstallTrigger !== 'undefined';   // Firefox 1.0+
var isSafari = Object.prototype.toString.call(window.HTMLElement).indexOf('Constructor') > 0;
    // At least Safari 3+: "[object HTMLElementConstructor]"
var isChrome = !!window.chrome && !isOpera;              // Chrome 1+
var isIE = /*@cc_on!@*/false || !!document.documentMode;
// Edge 20+
var isEdge = !isIE && !!window.StyleMedia;
// Chrome 1+
var output = 'Detecting browsers by ducktyping:<hr>';
output += 'isFirefox: ' + isFirefox + '<br>';
output += 'isChrome: ' + isChrome + '<br>';
output += 'isSafari: ' + isSafari + '<br>';
output += 'isOpera: ' + isOpera + '<br>';
output += 'isIE: ' + isIE + '<br>';
output += 'isIE Edge: ' + isEdge + '<br>';
document.body.innerHTML = output;

Instead of hardcoding web browsers, you can scan the user agent to find the browser name:

navigator.userAgent.split(')').reverse()[0].match(/(?!Gecko|Version|[A-Za-z]+?Web[Kk]it)[A-Z][a-z]+/g)[0]

I've tested this on Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Let me know if you found this doesn't work on a browser.

  • Safari: "Safari"
  • Chrome: "Chrome"
  • Firefox: "Firefox"

You can even modify this to get the browser version if you want. Do note there are better ways to get the browser version

navigator.userAgent.split(')').reverse()[0].match(/(?!Gecko|Version|[A-Za-z]+?Web[Kk]it)[A-Z][a-z]+\/[\d.]+/g)[0].split('/')

Sample output:

Firefox/39.0    

 var isOpera = !!window.opera || navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Opera') >= 0;
        // Opera 8.0+ (UA detection to detect Blink/v8-powered Opera)
        var isFirefox = typeof InstallTrigger !== 'undefined';   // Firefox 1.0+
        var isSafari = Object.prototype.toString.call(window.HTMLElement).indexOf('Constructor') > 0;
        // At least Safari 3+: "[object HTMLElementConstructor]"
        var isChrome = !!window.chrome;                          // Chrome 1+
        var isIE = /*@cc_on!@*/false; 

you can more read How to detect Safari, Chrome, IE, Firefox and Opera browser?


Not exactly what you want, but close to it:

var jscriptVersion = /*@cc_on @if(@_jscript) @_jscript_version @else @*/ false /*@end @*/;
var geckoVersion = navigator.product === 'Gecko' && navigator.productSub;
var operaVersion = 'opera' in window && 'version' in opera && opera.version();

The variables will contain the appropriate version or false if it is not available.

I'd appreciate it if someone using Chrome could find out if you can use window.chrome in a similar way to window.opera.


//Copy and paste this into your code/text editor, and try it

//Before you use this to fix compatability bugs, it's best to try inform the browser provider that you have found a bug and there latest browser may not be up to date with the current web standards

//Since none of the browsers use the browser identification system properly you need to do something a bit like this

//Write browser identification
document.write(navigator.userAgent + "<br>")

//Detect browser and write the corresponding name
if (navigator.userAgent.search("MSIE") >= 0){
    document.write('"MS Internet Explorer ');
    var position = navigator.userAgent.search("MSIE") + 5;
    var end = navigator.userAgent.search("; Windows");
    var version = navigator.userAgent.substring(position,end);
    document.write(version + '"');
}
else if (navigator.userAgent.search("Chrome") >= 0){
document.write('"Google Chrome ');// For some reason in the browser identification Chrome contains the word "Safari" so when detecting for Safari you need to include Not Chrome
    var position = navigator.userAgent.search("Chrome") + 7;
    var end = navigator.userAgent.search(" Safari");
    var version = navigator.userAgent.substring(position,end);
    document.write(version + '"');
}
else if (navigator.userAgent.search("Firefox") >= 0){
    document.write('"Mozilla Firefox ');
    var position = navigator.userAgent.search("Firefox") + 8;
    var version = navigator.userAgent.substring(position);
    document.write(version + '"');
}
else if (navigator.userAgent.search("Safari") >= 0 && navigator.userAgent.search("Chrome") < 0){//<< Here
    document.write('"Apple Safari ');
    var position = navigator.userAgent.search("Version") + 8;
    var end = navigator.userAgent.search(" Safari");
    var version = navigator.userAgent.substring(position,end);
    document.write(version + '"');
}
else if (navigator.userAgent.search("Opera") >= 0){
    document.write('"Opera ');
    var position = navigator.userAgent.search("Version") + 8;
    var version = navigator.userAgent.substring(position);
    document.write(version + '"');
}
else{
    document.write('"Other"');
}

//Use w3schools research the `search()` method as other methods are availible

If you want a function that returns the browser as well as the version, here is an improvement from the original answer:

navigator.browserInfo = 
(
    function()
    {
        var browser = '';
        var version = '';
        var idString = '';

        var ua = navigator.userAgent;
        var tem = [];
        var M = ua.match(/(opera|chrome|safari|firefox|msie|trident(?=\/))\/?\s*(\d+)/i);

        //IE will be identified as 'Trident' and a different version number. The name must be corrected to 'Internet Explorer' and the correct version identified.
        //ie correction
        if(/trident/i.test(M[1]))
        {
            tem = /\brv[ :]+(\d+.?\d*)/g.exec(ua) || [];
            browser = 'Internet Explorer';
            version = tem[1];
        }

        //firefox
        else if(/firefox/i.test(M[1]))
        {
            tem = /\brv[ :]+(\d+.?\d*)/g.exec(ua) || [];
            browser = 'Firefox';
            version = tem[1];
        }

        //safari
        else if(/safari/i.test(M[1]))
        {
            tem = ua.match(/\bVersion\/(\d+.?\d*\s*\w+)/);
            browser = 'Safari';
            version = tem[1];
        }

        //If 'Chrome' is found, it may be another browser. 
        else if(M[1] === 'Chrome')
        {
            //opera
            var temOpr = ua.match(/\b(OPR)\/(\d+.?\d*.?\d*.?\d*)/);
            //edge
            var temEdge = ua.match(/\b(Edge)\/(\d+.?\d*)/);
            //chrome
            var temChrome = ua.match(/\b(Chrome)\/(\d+.?\d*.?\d*.?\d*)/);

            //a genuine 'Chrome' reading will result from ONLY temChrome not being null.
            var genuineChrome = temOpr == null && temEdge == null && temChrome != null;

            if(temOpr != null)
            {
                browser = temOpr[1].replace('OPR', 'Opera');
                version = temOpr[2];
            }

            if(temEdge != null)
            {
                browser = temEdge[1];
                version = temEdge[2];
            }

            if(genuineChrome)
            {
                browser = temChrome[1];
                version = temChrome[2];
            }
        }
        //There will be some odd balls, so if you wish to support those browsers, add functionality to display those browsers as well.

        if(browser == '' || version == '')
        {
            idString = 'We couldn\'t find your browser, but you can still use the site';
        }
        else
        {
            idString = browser + ' version ' + version;
        }

        alert('Your browser is ' + idString);

        //store the type of browser locally
        if(typeof(Storage) !== "undefined")
        {
            //Store
            localStorage.setItem('browser', browser);
            localStorage.setItem('version', version);
        } 
        else
        {
            alert('local storage not available');
        }
    }
)();

With this, it also stores the result locally, so this check is not necessary to run every time.


Since Internet Explorer 11 (IE11+) came out and is not using the tag name of MSIE anymore I came up with a variance of an older detection function:

navigator.sayswho= (function(){
    var N= navigator.appName, ua= navigator.userAgent, tem;

    // if IE11+
    if (new RegExp("Trident/.*rv:([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})").exec(ua) !== null) {
        var M= ["Internet Explorer"];
        if(M && (tem= ua.match(/rv:([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})/))!= null) M[2]= tem[1];
        M= M? [M[0], M[2]]: [N, navigator.appVersion,'-?'];
        return M;
    }

    var M= ua.match(/(opera|chrome|safari|firefox|msie)\/?\s*(\.?\d+(\.\d+)*)/i);
    if(M && (tem= ua.match(/version\/([\.\d]+)/i))!= null) M[2]= tem[1];
    M= M? [M[1], M[2]]: [N, navigator.appVersion,'-?'];
    return M;
})();

It is usually best to avoid browser-specific code where possible. The JQuery $.support property is available for detection of support for particular features rather than relying on browser name and version.

In Opera for example, you can fake an internet explorer or firefox instance.

alt text

A detailed description of JQuery.support can be found here: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.support/

Now deprecated according to jQuery.

We strongly recommend the use of an external library such as Modernizr instead of dependency on properties in jQuery.support.

When coding websites, I always make sure, that basic functionality like navigation is also accessible to non-js users. This may be object to discussion and can be ignored if the homepage is targeted to a special audience.