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navigator object

alert(location);

alert(location.href);

The navigator object

The

navigator

object is one of the earliest implemented BOM objects, introduced in Netscape

Navigator 2.0 and Internet Explorer 3.0. It contains a significant amount of information about the

Web browser. It is also a property of the

window

object, and as such, can be referenced either as

window.navigator

or just

navigator

Although Microsoft originally objected to the term

navigator

as being specific to Netscape’s browser,

the

navigator

object has become a sort of de facto standard for providing information about a Web

browser. (Microsoft does have its own object called

clientInformation

in addition to the

navigator

object, but both provide the exact same data.)

Once again, the lack of standards rears its ugly head with the

navigator

object because each browser

decides what properties and methods to support. The following table lists the most popular properties

and methods and also which of the four most popular browsers — Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera,

and Safari — support them.

Property/Method Description

IE Moz Op Saf

appCodeName

String representing code name of the browser

X X X X

(typically

“Mozilla”)

appName

String representing official browser name

X X X X

appMinorVersion

String representing extra version information

X – – –

appVersion

String representing the browser version

X X X X

browserLanguage

* String representing the language of the browser X – X –

or operating system

cookieEnabled

Boolean indicating if cookies are enabled

X X X –

cpuClass

String representing the CPU class

(“x86”

X – – –

“68K”

“Alpha”

“PPC”

, or

“Other”

)

javaEnabled()

Boolean indicating if Java is enabled

X X X X

language

String representing language of the browser

– X X X

mimeTypes

Array of mimetypes registered with the browser – X X X

Table continued on following page

Throughout this section, the

location

object has been used in the examples.

Remember, the

location

object is a property of both

window

and

document

, so

window.location

and

document.location

are equal to each other and can be used

interchangeably.

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JavaScript in the Browser

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