How to Determine If a User is Accessing a Web Site Through a Mobile Device

Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 January 2013 12:51 Written by David Bauernschmidt Wednesday, 23 January 2013 12:00

With the explosion of smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices it is becoming more important than ever to determine what type of devices are being used to get to your data.  Furthermore; hiring a development team to build the same application for Apple, Android, and Microsoft is almost only dedicated to companies that are very large or those companies that are willing to lose money until they hit it big.  For the vast majority a solution is to develop a web application that fairly browser independent.  This article is not designed to show you how to build a mobile application (this might come in a later blog) but rather provide you with the first step in this journey.  This sample is to help in identifying whether a user is on your site by a mobile device or through a normal browser.  I have pulled together different parts of the web to provide step by step instructions to do the following: