Browscap
The Browscap module provides a replacement for PHP's get_browser() function. get_browser() is difficult (or impossible) to configure for most users in shared webhosting situations, and requires attention to keep the underlying data (browscap.ini) up-to-date. This module avoids the configuration issue by storing the data in a database table, and the freshness issue by automatically retrieving the latest data on a weekly basis (if cron.php is run regularly).
Also, statistics on browsers visiting the site may be captured by enabling monitoring in the browscap settings.
Thanks to Gary Keith for providing regular updates to the browscap data, and specifically for adding a non-zipped CSV version of browscap to support this module.
This module requires that your server be able to "phone out" (make a http request) to retrieve the browscap data file. Some hosting companies have this capability blocked, so please keep that in mind when using the module.
If you use PHP 5.3 there is a bug which causes problems parsing the browscap file: #664424: Code for fetching last version breaks.
Related modules
The Mobile Tools module leverages this module to get data about whether a visitor is on a mobile device.
The User Agent Logger works in a similar manner, but with less ability to classify user agents. It does log user agent data for node and comment creators and adds that data into the $node and $comment objects.
Security update
If you use Browscap prior to veresion 6.x-1.1 or 5.x-1.1 you are strongly encouraged to upgrade. See SA-CONTRIB-2009-065 - Browscap - Cross Site Scripting for details. When you upgrade be sure to clear the menu cache by visiting and executing update.php or visiting admin/settings/performance and clearing the cache.
