GDS Browser Type Management

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Different browsers and devices often require changes to HTML to best support the abilities of the target device. While most browsers are developed to various Web standards, some features are browser specific.

If you have a series of web pages that are written for generic browser types, you can use the optional features in GDS to provide alternatives HTML representation for different browsers and devices. This web page explains the structure and layout options used in GDS to manage how this works. This section is not describing the various abilities and ways to use different browsers to their maximum effect.

Consider a web page, such as this one you are currently reading, which might exist on the URI path /gds/doc/mobile_browser.htm This URL maps to a specific folder of files, which is controlled by "hostpath" directives in the globaldata.ctl control file. This path provides the base link mapping URLs to files.

When a user browses to this URL from a mobile device, GDS can sometimes detect and decode both the type of device being used and the preferred user language. While you could create web pages for each combination and get the user to have different URLs themselves (such as /gds/doc/iPhone/German/mobile_browser.htm), this creates a huge layer of additional complexity on the server and much more work for web designers.

Absolute Path Urls

If GDS selects and changes served content based on browser type, then absolute path URLs can be used to override and bypass this content redirection. This means you can view any page on any device regardless of what GDS thinks it should be displaying.

Absolute URLs are referenced by placing /_ at the beginning of the URL, and then some selection control criteria. The language and format can be selected using codes in the following tables. Some examples of the page /abc.htm
/_en_normal/abc.htmEnglish, normal browser representation
/_de_normal/abc.htmGerman, normal browser representation
/_en_mobile/abc.htmEnglish, mobile browser representation
/_pt_mobile/abc.htmPortuguese, mobile browser representation
/_en/abc.htmEnglish, mobile or normal browser representation is selected by GDS
/_mobile/abc.htmMobile browser representation, language remains selected by browser request headers
/abc.htmGDS server makes the decision as to format and language based on browser request headers, such as User-Agent and Accept-Language

Supported Browsers

The following browsers and devices are supported by GDS. Other browsers and devices will probably work, but these are the devices that have been fully tested. It is not practical for us to support every possible device, there are thousands of different platforms with browsers (sometimes with different names in different countries). Many mobile devices are based on Mobile Safari and will work even though they are not directly listed below.


Mobile Devices

Other Devices

I wish to provide some language translations

For simple translations, you can embed the translation into the source HTM file and GDS will only output the lines as suitable for the current rendering environment. This mode is selected by enabling language tags for the web page, and then prefixing language specific lines with the language code.
<fieldpine:enable langtags/>
#en This line is output for English versions
#de Diese Line is nur fur Deutschverfassung
With this method, the system will output the best line in a block. Blocks are seperated by any line that does not begin with a hash (#). It is processed line by line and the system choses the best line from a block that matches the desired languages.
<fieldpine:enable langtags/>
#en English Line 1
#de German Line 1

#en English Line 2
#pt Portuguese Line 2
Line 3
In this example, the page will render as follows for different languages (second preference shown in brackets)

English Line 1
English Line 2
Line 3


German Line 1
English Line 2
Line 3


English Line 1
Portuguese Line 2
Line 3

German 1st, Portuguese 2nd

German Line 1
Portuguese Line 2
Line 3

I wish to provide complete language replacements

If you prefer to create completely separate language specifc translations of web pages, then you can place these inside specially formed directories to inform GDS of their presence.

I wish to provide some Device Specific support