Chapter 6

Developing a Mobile Device Detection and Adaption System

In This Chapter

Comparing methods for detecting mobile devices

Distinguishing between client-side and server-side detection

Creating a server-side detection system

Creating device class profiles

Letting the user choose which profile to use

During the few short years that handhelds have been displaying web content, somewhere between 6,000 to 8,000 different gadgets have been released onto the mobile device market. Imagine if you had to design a different website for each of one! That, of course, would be silly.

Even so, there are many ways to approach creating content for different types of devices, ranging from the very simple to the extremely complex. No matter which approach you choose, in the long run it comes down to developing two systems: detection and adaptation. The device detection system determines which type of device is visiting the site, and the adaptation system delivers the appropriate content for the device.