Looking for an Ajax or PHP trick to detect if they have Javascript...

Question

I am looking for some kind of trick to determine if a user has javascript... I figure I could do it somehow by sending a ajax request at the top of a page, and in that ajax request, set a session variable, and then somehow reload the page, and see of it was set...

Is there any tricks like this around in PHP/AJAX?

Answer 1

you could use a very simple tip:

<script>document.location="/index2.php";</script>
<p>You need javascript for an improved navigation!</p>

where the current page (which I assume is index.php) is only used to redirect the visitor to the actual index page : index2.php

or use get_browser which provides a field for javascript. I tested it with firefox (disabling js and not) and it worked pretty fine for me.

Answer 2

$results = get_browser();
if ($results["javascript"] == 1) {
echo "You have javascript";
}

(source)

Answer 3

You can always use the noscript tags:

<noscript>
<input type="hidden" name="has_javascript" value="false">
</noscript>

and detect that on the server.

Answer 4

What you can do is add code like this (no AJAX needed):

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2;URL=/?nojs" />
<script type="text/javascript">
window.location.href="/?js";
</script>

However, you should not do that. Instead, serve the basic website every time, and decorate it with a script element that loads all the JavaScript that modifies and adds dynamic content.

Answer 5

aif is mistaken. Even if JS is disabled, if your browser supports JS it is listed as javascript=1.