Me and about 5 other people are making a Firefox promotion site, I already know there are others so I don't need to be told. I haven't purchased the domain yet but I do have a sponsor site that will buy it for me (photoshopsquad.com). I'm using a free hosting service to test the pages before I do anything with it- http://groogstestpages.freehostia.com/

This is what I have so far and it works pretty well except the browser detect screws up with Firefox. It says I have Netscape which I don't understand, the code I'm using in a div is-

<script type="text/javascript">
var browser=navigator.appName
document.write("Detecting Browser... " + browser + " ")
if (browser!="Mozilla")
{
document.write("<b>You need to get Firefox!</b>")
}
</script>

Apart from the main question when I get it working will it detect the browser as "Firefox", "Mozilla" or "Mozilla Firefox"? I'm also going to want to make the border and background color change but that's a hole different topic. Any help would be appreciated!

Try something like this:

var browser = navigator.appName;
document.write("Detecting Browser... " + browser + " ")
if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Firefox") == -1) {
  document.write("<b>You need to get Firefox!</b>");
}

This should be fine for your purposes, but don't be too reliant on the user agent or the navigator object, as most of the properties can be spoofed by the user or are inaccurate. (For example, Safari 3 for Windows, though beta, shows Netscape for navigator.appName.)

Let me suggest that you not detect the browser for a feature. Instead, test to see if the function you want exists and then deliver an appropriate alternative if it doesn't exist. Your code will then be more forward compatible.

Originally Posted by groog

Apart from the main question when I get it working will it detect the browser as "Firefox", "Mozilla" or "Mozilla Firefox"?

I think this should be pretty reliable:

<script type="text/javascript">
if (!window.crypto && !GeckoActiveXObject)
{
 document.write("<b>Consider Firefox!</b>");
}
</script>