molly.wurfl – Device Detection

This is a utility app which provides device detection

Configuration

  • expose_view: If defined, this exposes a single page which allows users to see what their device is being identified as.

Sample:

Application('molly.wurfl', 'device_detection', 'Device detection',
    display_to_user = False,
    expose_view = True,
),

Views

Troubleshooting

The WURFL database is the part of the Molly framework that needs the most upkeep due to the ever-changing nature of the mobile market. The installation process for Molly will update your Wurfl database to the most recent version at every install and update (except when in development mode), but new devices may not yet appear in the Wurfl, and the Wurfl neglects to cover user agents belonging to desktop browsers. Therefore, Molly maintains a “local patch” to the Wurfl in molly/wurfl/data/local_patch.xml. This patch file format is documented by Wurfl and is merged into the main Wurfl file at update time. This file lives in the main Molly repository, and if you have come across a device which the Wurfl does not recognise, we would encourage you to commit it back to the main Molly Project as a patch so all users can benefit.

When modifying this file, you must first identify the user agent of the device, and if this device is a newer version of an already existing device, the Wurfl ID of the older version of the device (assuming that the newer device inherits the attributes of the older version). You can then simply add a new line like so:

<device user_agent="User-Agent-Of-My-New-Device" fall_back="wurfl_id_of_old_device" id="my_new_wurfl_id"/>

New devices can be added following the format specified in the main Wurfl docs.

The Wurfl will cover most mobile devices eventually, so you should be able to remove this patch after a period of time. Desktop browsers appear to be slower to be updated in the Wurfl desktop patch.