re: Determining what capabilities ASP.NET is using to render pages

aarontallen — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 19:46:25 GMT

A problem we are facing is that as new phones/devices are produced ASP.Net 2.0 doesn't recognize them for the capabilities they have (JavaScript, Table Support, etc.).

Do you have any recommendations on how to stay on top of new devices? Supposedly Microsoft won't be releasing device updates like they used to in 1.1. If they couldn't stay on top of all new devices, how am I supposed to?

The unfortunate effect is that someone with a snazzy new device, with more then the necessary caps get's the watered down no javascript basic version when they should be getting the site in all its glory.

Thanks in advance for any insight/help you have. Thank you also for this blog, I've added it to my list of places to go for solutions.

--Aaron

re: Determining what capabilities ASP.NET is using to render pages

Jorman — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:30:31 GMT

Right, there won't be a device update as there was in 1.1. The following link talks about the .browser files and capabilities.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x3k2ssx2.aspx

The accurate way would be to profile the device, though that would be tricky with an internet based app where you have no idea what devices users are browsing with. However, you could go the route of forcing browsers with a common user agent string to have uplevel capabilities. The downside of this approach is the potential for downlevel devices to get content they can't render.