Edge claims to support webkitSpeechRecognition, but it doesn't work (discussion here, doesn't work on websites meant for testing, like this mozilla one, with the error "Error occurred in recognition: language-not-supported" despite my US english UI).
How can I detect if webkitSpeechRecognition is actually supported? I tried to filter out Edge by looking at the user agent, but it shows up as Chrome, and I'd prefer to just use feature detection rather than looking at the user agent anyway. I'd like to check this without requesting microphone permission (if I did request microphone permission, I'd have to wait for them to accept, and then see the language-not-supported error). Is there a simple way to check this, similar to just checking the value of window["webkitSpeechRecognition"] (which is defined in Edge, despite not working)?
If you want to check the support for webkitSpeechRecognition then you can refer to the JS code example below.
if ('SpeechRecognition' in window || 'webkitSpeechRecognition' in window)
{
console.log("speech recognition API supported");
}
else
{
console.log("speech recognition API not supported")
}
Output in MS Edge 88.0.705.56:
However, if you directly try to make a test using webkitSpeechRecognition then it will not work.
It looks like this feature is currently under development and to use it we need to enable it by passing the command line arguments.
I suggest you refer to the steps below.
Create a shortcut of the Edge chromium-browser.
Right-click the shortcut file and go to Properties.
Under Shortcut tab, in the Target textbox, add --enable-features=msSpeechRecognition after the msedge.exe path. Make sure to add 1 space between the path and command-line argument.
It should look like below.
Click on the OK button to close the properties window.
Launch the Edge browser via shortcut and visit any sample code example for SpeechRecognition. Here I am making a test with this example.
Output in MS Edge 88.0.705.56:
In addition, it's useful to check for errors (as shown in the above example source code, see below, https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/demos/speech.html): for instance audio might be disabled if not on a https website.
recognition.onerror = function(event) {
if (event.error == 'no-speech') {
start_img.src = '/intl/en/chrome/assets/common/images/content/mic.gif';
showInfo('info_no_speech');
ignore_onend = true;
}
if (event.error == 'audio-capture') {
start_img.src = '/intl/en/chrome/assets/common/images/content/mic.gif';
showInfo('info_no_microphone');
ignore_onend = true;
}
if (event.error == 'not-allowed') {
if (event.timeStamp - start_timestamp < 100) {
showInfo('info_blocked');
} else {
showInfo('info_denied');
}
ignore_onend = true;
}
};
I have created a custom URL protocol handler.
http://
mailto://
custom://
I have registered a WinForms application to respond accordingly. This all works great.
But I would like to be able to gracefully handle the case where the user doesn't have the custom URL protocol handler installed, yet.
In order to be able to do this I need to be able to detect the browser's registered protocol handlers, I would assume from JavaScript. But I have been unable to find a way to poll for the information. I am hoping to find a solution to this problem.
Thanks for any ideas you might be able to share.
This would be a very, very hacky way to do this... but would this work?
Put the link in as normal...
But attach an onclick handler to it, that sets a timer and adds an onblur handler for the window
(in theory) if the browser handles the link (application X) will load stealing the focus from the window...
If the onblur event fires, clear the timer...
Otherwise in 3-5seconds let your timeout fire... and notify the user "Hmm, looks like you don't have the Mega Uber Cool Application installed... would you like to install it now? (Ok) (Cancel)"
Far from bulletproof... but it might help?
There's no great cross-browser way to do this. In IE10+ on Win8+, a new msLaunchUri api enables you to launch a protocol, like so:
navigator.msLaunchUri('skype:123456',
function()
{
alert('success');
},
function()
{
alert('failed');
}
);
If the protocol is not installed, the failure callback will fire. Otherwise, the protocol will launch and the success callback will fire.
I discuss this topic a bit further here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180308105244/https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ieinternals/2011/07/13/understanding-protocols/
This topic is of recent (2021) interest; see https://github.com/fingerprintjs/external-protocol-flooding for discussion.
HTML5 defines Custom scheme and content handlers (to my knowledge Firefox is the only implementor so far), but unfortunately there is currently no way to check if a handler already exists—it has been proposed, but there was no follow-up. This seems like a critical feature to use custom handlers effectively and we as developers should bring attention to this issue in order to get it implemented.
There seems to be no straightforward way via javascript to detect the presence of an installed app that has registered a protocol handler.
In the iTunes model, Apple provides urls to their servers, which then provide pages that run some javascript:
http://ax.itunes.apple.com/detection/itmsCheck.js
So the iTunes installer apparently deploys plugins for the major browsers, whose presence can then be detected.
If your plugin is installed, then you can be reasonably sure that redirecting to your app-specific url will succeed.
What seams the most easy solution is to ask the user the first time.
Using a Javascript confirm dialog per example:
You need this software to be able to read this link. Did you install it ?
if yes: create a cookie to not ask next time; return false and the link applies
if false: window.location.href = '/downloadpage/'
If you have control of the program you're trying to run (the code), one way to see if the user was successful in running the application would be to:
Before trying to open the custom protocol, make an AJAX request to a server script that saves the user's intent in a database (for example, save the userid and what he wanted to do).
Try to open the program, and pass on the intent data.
Have the program make a request to the server to remove the database entry (using the intent data to find the correct row).
Make the javascript poll the server for a while to see if the database entry is gone. If the entry is gone, you'll know the user was successful in opening the application, otherwise the entry will remain (you can remove it later with cronjob).
I have not tried this method, just thought it.
I was able to finally get a cross-browser (Chrome 32, Firefox 27, IE 11, Safari 6) solution working with a combination of this and a super-simple Safari extension. Much of this solution has been mentioned in one way or another in this and this other question.
Here's the script:
function launchCustomProtocol(elem, url, callback) {
var iframe, myWindow, success = false;
if (Browser.name === "Internet Explorer") {
myWindow = window.open('', '', 'width=0,height=0');
myWindow.document.write("<iframe src='" + url + "'></iframe>");
setTimeout(function () {
try {
myWindow.location.href;
success = true;
} catch (ex) {
console.log(ex);
}
if (success) {
myWindow.setTimeout('window.close()', 100);
} else {
myWindow.close();
}
callback(success);
}, 100);
} else if (Browser.name === "Firefox") {
try {
iframe = $("<iframe />");
iframe.css({"display": "none"});
iframe.appendTo("body");
iframe[0].contentWindow.location.href = url;
success = true;
} catch (ex) {
success = false;
}
iframe.remove();
callback(success);
} else if (Browser.name === "Chrome") {
elem.css({"outline": 0});
elem.attr("tabindex", "1");
elem.focus();
elem.blur(function () {
success = true;
callback(true); // true
});
location.href = url;
setTimeout(function () {
elem.off('blur');
elem.removeAttr("tabindex");
if (!success) {
callback(false); // false
}
}, 1000);
} else if (Browser.name === "Safari") {
if (myappinstalledflag) {
location.href = url;
success = true;
} else {
success = false;
}
callback(success);
}
}
The Safari extension was easy to implement. It consisted of a single line of injection script:
myinject.js:
window.postMessage("myappinstalled", window.location.origin);
Then in the web page JavaScript, you need to first register the message event and set a flag if the message is received:
window.addEventListener('message', function (msg) {
if (msg.data === "myappinstalled") {
myappinstalledflag = true;
}
}, false);
This assumes the application which is associated with the custom protocol will manage the installation of the Safari extension.
In all cases, if the callback returns false, you know to inform the user that the application (i.e., it's custom protocol) is not installed.
You say you need to detect the browser's protocol handlers - do you really?
What if you did something like what happens when you download a file from sourceforge? Let's say you want to open myapp://something. Instead of simply creating a link to it, create a link to another HTML page accessed via HTTP. Then, on that page, say that you're attempting to open the application for them. If it doesn't work, they need to install your application, which they can do by clicking on the link you'll provide. If it does work, then you're all set.
This was a recommended approach for IE by Microsoft support
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537503%28VS.85%29.aspx#related_topics
"If you have some control over the binaries being installed on a user’s machine, checking the UA in script seems like a relevant approach:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform
" -- By M$ support
Every web page has access to the userAgent string and if you drop a custom post platform value, detecting this in javascript using navigator.userAgent is quite simple.
Fortunately, other major browsers like Firefox and Chrome (barring Safari :( ), do not throw "page not found" errors when a link with a custom protocol is clicked and the protocol is not installed on the users machine. IE is very unforgiving here, any trick to click in a invisible frame or trap javascript errors does not work and ends up with ugly "webpage cannot be displayed" error. The trick we use in our case is to inform users with browser specific images that clicking on the custom protocol link will open an application. And if they do not find the app opening up, they can click on an "install" page. In terms of XD this wprks way better than the ActiveX approach for IE.
For FF and Chrome, just go ahead and launch the custom protocol without any detection. Let the user tell you what he sees.
For Safari, :( no answers yet
I'm trying to do something similar and I just discovered a trick that works with Firefox. If you combine it with the trick for IE you can have one that works on both main browsers (I'm not sure if it works in Safari and I know it doesn't work in Chrome)
if (navigator.appName=="Microsoft Internet Explorer" && document.getElementById("testprotocollink").protocolLong=="Unknown Protocol") {
alert("No handler registered");
} else {
try {
window.location = "custom://stuff";
} catch(err) {
if (err.toString().search("NS_ERROR_UNKNOWN_PROTOCOL") != -1) {
alert("No handler registered");
}
}
}
In order for this to work you also need to have a hidden link somewhere on the page, like this:
<a id="testprotocollink" href="custom://testprotocol" style="display: none;">testprotocollink</a>
It's a bit hacky but it works. The Firefox version unfortunately still pops up the default alert that comes up when you try to visit a link with an unknown protocol, but it will run your code after the alert is dismissed.
You can try something like this:
function OpenCustomLink(link) {
var w = window.open(link, 'xyz', 'status=0,toolbar=0,menubar=0,height=0,width=0,top=-10,left=-10');
if(w == null) {
//Work Fine
}
else {
w.close();
if (confirm('You Need a Custom Program. Do you want to install?')) {
window.location = 'SetupCustomProtocol.exe'; //URL for installer
}
}
}
This is not a trivial task; one option might be to use signed code, which you could leverage to access the registry and/or filesystem (please note that this is a very expensive option). There is also no unified API or specification for code signing, so you would be required to generate specific code for each target browser. A support nightmare.
Also, I know that Steam, the gaming content delivery system, doesn't seem to have this problem solved either.
Here's another hacky answer that would require (hopefully light) modification to your application to 'phone home' on launch.
User clicks link, which attempts to launch the application. A unique
identifier is put in the link, so that it's passed to the
application when it launches. Web app shows a spinner or something of that nature.
Web page then starts checking for a
'application phone home' event from an app with this same unique ID.
When launched, your application does an HTTP post to your web app
with the unique identifier, to indicate presence.
Either the web page sees that the application launched, eventually, or moves on with a 'please download' page.
This question already has answers here:
Get visitors language & country code with javascript (client-side) [duplicate]
(3 answers)
How to determine user's locale within browser?
(10 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
I have been trying to detect the browser language preference using JavaScript.
If I set the browser language in IE in Tools>Internet Options>General>Languages, how do I read this value using JavaScript?
Same problem for Firefox. I'm not able to detect the setting for tools>options>content>languages using navigator.language.
Using navigator.userLanguage , it detects the setting done thru
Start>ControlPanel>RegionalandLanguageOptions>Regional Options tab.
I have tested with navigator.browserLanguage and navigator.systemLanguage but neither returns the value for the first setting(Tools>InternetOptions>General>Languages)
I found a link which discusses this in detail, but the question remains unanswered :(
I think the main problem here is that the browser settings don't actually affect the navigator.language property that is obtained via javascript.
What they do affect is the HTTP 'Accept-Language' header, but it appears this value is not available through javascript at all. (Probably why #anddoutoi states he can't find a reference for it that doesn't involve server side.)
I have coded a workaround: I've knocked up a google app engine script at http://ajaxhttpheaders.appspot.com that will return you the HTTP request headers via JSONP.
(Note: this is a hack only to be used if you do not have a back end available that can do this for you. In general you should not be making calls to third party hosted javascript files in your pages unless you have a very high level of trust in the host.)
I intend to leave it there in perpetuity so feel free to use it in your code.
Here's some example code (in jQuery) for how you might use it
$.ajax({
url: "http://ajaxhttpheaders.appspot.com",
dataType: 'jsonp',
success: function(headers) {
language = headers['Accept-Language'];
nowDoSomethingWithIt(language);
}
});
Hope someone finds this useful.
Edit: I have written a small jQuery plugin on github that wraps this functionality: https://github.com/dansingerman/jQuery-Browser-Language
Edit 2: As requested here is the code that is running on AppEngine (super trivial really):
class MainPage(webapp.RequestHandler):
def get(self):
headers = self.request.headers
callback = self.request.get('callback')
if callback:
self.response.headers['Content-Type'] = 'application/javascript'
self.response.out.write(callback + "(")
self.response.out.write(headers)
self.response.out.write(")")
else:
self.response.headers['Content-Type'] = 'text/plain'
self.response.out.write("I need a callback=")
application = webapp.WSGIApplication(
[('/', MainPage)],
debug=False)
def main():
run_wsgi_app(application)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
Edit3: Have open sourced the app engine code here: https://github.com/dansingerman/app-engine-headers
var language = window.navigator.userLanguage || window.navigator.language;
alert(language); //works IE/SAFARI/CHROME/FF
window.navigator.userLanguage is IE only and it's the language set in Windows Control Panel - Regional Options and NOT browser language, but you could suppose that a user using a machine with Window Regional settings set to France is probably a French user.
navigator.language is FireFox and all other browser.
Some language code: 'it' = italy, 'en-US' = english US, etc.
As pointed out by rcoup and The WebMacheter in comments below, this workaround won't let you discriminate among English dialects when users are viewing website in browsers other than IE.
window.navigator.language (Chrome/FF/Safari) returns always browser language and not browser's preferred language, but: "it's pretty common for English speakers (gb, au, nz, etc) to have an en-us version of Firefox/Chrome/Safari." Hence window.navigator.language will still return en-US even if the user preferred language is en-GB.
Update of year 2014.
Now there is a way to get Accept-Languages in Firefox and Chrome using navigator.languages (works in Chrome >= 32 and Firefox >= 32)
Also, navigator.language in Firefox these years reflects most preferred language of content, not language of UI. But since this notion is yet to be supported by other browsers, it is not very useful.
So, to get most preferred content language when possible, and use UI language as fallback:
navigator.languages
? navigator.languages[0]
: (navigator.language || navigator.userLanguage)
I came across this piece of code to detect browser's language in Angular Translate module, which you can find the source here. I slightly modified the code by replacing angular.isArray with Array.isArray to make it independent of Angular library.
var getFirstBrowserLanguage = function () {
var nav = window.navigator,
browserLanguagePropertyKeys = ['language', 'browserLanguage', 'systemLanguage', 'userLanguage'],
i,
language;
// support for HTML 5.1 "navigator.languages"
if (Array.isArray(nav.languages)) {
for (i = 0; i < nav.languages.length; i++) {
language = nav.languages[i];
if (language && language.length) {
return language;
}
}
}
// support for other well known properties in browsers
for (i = 0; i < browserLanguagePropertyKeys.length; i++) {
language = nav[browserLanguagePropertyKeys[i]];
if (language && language.length) {
return language;
}
}
return null;
};
console.log(getFirstBrowserLanguage());
let lang = window.navigator.languages ? window.navigator.languages[0] : null;
lang = lang || window.navigator.language || window.navigator.browserLanguage || window.navigator.userLanguage;
let shortLang = lang;
if (shortLang.indexOf('-') !== -1)
shortLang = shortLang.split('-')[0];
if (shortLang.indexOf('_') !== -1)
shortLang = shortLang.split('_')[0];
console.log(lang, shortLang);
I only needed the primary component for my needs, but you can easily just use the full string. Works with latest Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE10+.
var language = navigator.languages && navigator.languages[0] || // Chrome / Firefox
navigator.language || // All browsers
navigator.userLanguage; // IE <= 10
console.log(language);
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NavigatorLanguage/languages
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NavigatorLanguage/language
Try PWA Template https://github.com/StartPolymer/progressive-web-app-template
navigator.userLanguage for IE
window.navigator.language for firefox/opera/safari
I've been using Hamid's answer for a while, but it in cases where the languages array is like ["en", "en-GB", "en-US", "fr-FR", "fr", "en-ZA"] it will return "en", when "en-GB" would be a better match.
My update (below) will return the first long format code e.g. "en-GB", otherwise it will return the first short code e.g. "en", otherwise it will return null.
function getFirstBrowserLanguage() {
var nav = window.navigator,
browserLanguagePropertyKeys = ['language', 'browserLanguage', 'systemLanguage', 'userLanguage'],
i,
language,
len,
shortLanguage = null;
// support for HTML 5.1 "navigator.languages"
if (Array.isArray(nav.languages)) {
for (i = 0; i < nav.languages.length; i++) {
language = nav.languages[i];
len = language.length;
if (!shortLanguage && len) {
shortLanguage = language;
}
if (language && len>2) {
return language;
}
}
}
// support for other well known properties in browsers
for (i = 0; i < browserLanguagePropertyKeys.length; i++) {
language = nav[browserLanguagePropertyKeys[i]];
//skip this loop iteration if property is null/undefined. IE11 fix.
if (language == null) { continue; }
len = language.length;
if (!shortLanguage && len) {
shortLanguage = language;
}
if (language && len > 2) {
return language;
}
}
return shortLanguage;
}
console.log(getFirstBrowserLanguage());
Update: IE11 was erroring when some properties were undefined. Added a check to skip those properties.
I've just come up with this. It combines newer JS destructuring syntax with a few standard operations to retrieve the language and locale.
var [lang, locale] = (
(
(
navigator.userLanguage || navigator.language
).replace(
'-', '_'
)
).toLowerCase()
).split('_');
Hope it helps someone
There is no decent way to get that setting, at least not something browser independent.
But the server has that info, because it is part of the HTTP request header (the Accept-Language field, see http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.4)
So the only reliable way is to get an answer back from the server. You will need something that runs on the server (like .asp, .jsp, .php, CGI) and that "thing" can return that info.
Good examples here: http://www.developershome.com/wap/detection/detection.asp?page=readHeader
I can't find a single reference that state that it's possible without involving the serverside.
MSDN on:
navigator.browserLanguage
navigator.systemLanguage
navigator.userLanguage
From browserLanguage:
In Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and
earlier, the browserLanguage property
reflects the language of the installed
browser's user interface. For example,
if you install a Japanese version of
Windows Internet Explorer on an
English operating system,
browserLanguage would be ja.
In Internet Explorer 5 and later,
however, the browserLanguage property
reflects the language of the operating
system regardless of the installed
language version of Internet Explorer.
However, if Microsoft Windows 2000
MultiLanguage version is installed,
the browserLanguage property indicates
the language set in the operating
system's current menus and dialogs, as
found in the Regional Options of the
Control Panel. For example, if you
install a Japanese version of Internet
Explorer 5 on an English (United
Kingdom) operating system,
browserLanguage would be en-gb. If you
install Windows 2000 MultiLanguage
version and set the language of the
menus and dialogs to French,
browserLanguage would be fr, even
though you have a Japanese version of
Internet Explorer.
Note This property does not indicate
the language or languages set by the
user in Language Preferences, located
in the Internet Options dialog box.
Furthermore, it looks like browserLanguage is deprecated cause IE8 doesn't list it
I had the same problem, and I wrote the following front-end only library that wraps up the code for multiple browsers. It's not much code, but nice to not have to copy and paste the same code across multiple websites.
Get it: acceptedlanguages.js
Use it:
<script src="acceptedlanguages.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
console.log('Accepted Languages: ' + acceptedlanguages.accepted);
</script>
It always returns an array, ordered by users preference. In Safari & IE the array is always single length. In FF and Chrome it may be more than one language.
I would like to share my code, because it works and it is different than the others given anwers.
In this example, if you speak French (France, Belgium or other French language) you are redirected on the French page, otherwise on the English page, depending on the browser configuration:
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
var userLang = navigator.language || navigator.userLanguage;
if (userLang.startsWith("fr")) {
window.location.href = '../fr/index.html';
}
else {
window.location.href = '../en/index.html';
}
});
</script>
If you only need to support certain modern browsers then you can now use:
navigator.languages
which returns an array of the user's language preferences in the order specified by the user.
As of now (Sep 2014) this works on:
Chrome (v37),
Firefox (v32) and
Opera (v24)
But not on:
IE (v11)
Javascript way:
var language = window.navigator.userLanguage || window.navigator.language;//returns value like 'en-us'
If you are using jQuery.i18n plugin, you can use:
jQuery.i18n.browserLang();//returns value like '"en-US"'
If you are developing a Chrome App / Extension use the chrome.i18n API.
chrome.i18n.getAcceptLanguages(function(languages) {
console.log(languages);
// ["en-AU", "en", "en-US"]
});
DanSingerman has a very good solution for this question.
The only reliable source for the language is in the HTTP-request header.
So you need a server-side script to reply the request-header or at least the Accept-Language field back to you.
Here is a very simple Node.js server which should be compatible with DanSingermans jQuery plugin.
var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
res.end(JSON.stringify(req.headers));
}).listen(80,'0.0.0.0');
For what it's worth, Wikimedia's Universal Language Selector library has hooks for doing this:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UniversalLanguageSelector
See the function getFrequentLanguageList in resources/js/ext.uls.init.js . Direct link:
https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/gitweb?p=mediawiki/extensions/UniversalLanguageSelector.git;a=blob;f=resources/js/ext.uls.init.js;hb=HEAD
It still depends on the server, or more specifically, the MediaWiki API. The reason I'm showing it is that it may provide a good example of getting all the useful information about the user's language: browser language, Accept-Language, geolocation (with getting country/language info from the CLDR), and of course, user's own site preferences.
Dan Singerman's answer has an issue that the header fetched has to be used right away, due to the asynchronous nature of jQuery's ajax. However, with his google app server, I wrote the following, such that the header is set as part of the initial set up and can be used at later time.
<html>
<head>
<script>
var bLocale='raw'; // can be used at any other place
function processHeaders(headers){
bLocale=headers['Accept-Language'];
comma=bLocale.indexOf(',');
if(comma>0) bLocale=bLocale.substring(0, comma);
}
</script>
<script src="jquery-1.11.0.js"></script>
<script type="application/javascript" src="http://ajaxhttpheaders.appspot.com?callback=processHeaders"></script>
</head>
<body>
<h1 id="bLocale">Should be the browser locale here</h1>
</body>
<script>
$("#bLocale").text(bLocale);
</script>
</html>
If you don't want to rely on an external server and you have one of your own you can use a simple PHP script to achieve the same behavior as #DanSingerman answer.
languageDetector.php:
<?php
$lang = substr($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'], 0, 2);
echo json_encode($lang);
?>
And just change this lines from the jQuery script:
url: "languageDetector.php",
dataType: 'json',
success: function(language) {
nowDoSomethingWithIt(language);
}
If you have control of a backend and are using django, a 4 line implementation of Dan's idea is:
def get_browser_lang(request):
if request.META.has_key('HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'):
return JsonResponse({'response': request.META['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']})
else:
return JsonResponse({'response': settings.DEFAULT_LANG})
then in urls.py:
url(r'^browserlang/$', views.get_browser_lang, name='get_browser_lang'),
and on the front end:
$.get(lg('SERVER') + 'browserlang/', function(data){
var lang_code = data.response.split(',')[0].split(';')[0].split('-')[0];
});
(you have to set DEFAULT_LANG in settings.py of course)
Based on the answer here Accessing the web page's HTTP Headers in JavaScript I built the following script to get the browser language:
var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
req.open('GET', document.location, false);
req.send(null);
var headers = req.getAllResponseHeaders().toLowerCase();
var contentLanguage = headers.match( /^content-language\:(.*)$/gm );
if(contentLanguage[0]) {
return contentLanguage[0].split(":")[1].trim().toUpperCase();
}
If you are using ASP .NET MVC and you want to get the Accepted-Languages header from JavaScript then here is a workaround example that does not involve any asynchronous requests.
In your .cshtml file, store the header securely in a div's data- attribute:
<div data-languages="#Json.Encode(HttpContext.Current.Request.UserLanguages)"></div>
Then your JavaScript code can access the info, e.g. using JQuery:
<script type="text/javascript">
$('[data-languages]').each(function () {
var languages = $(this).data("languages");
for (var i = 0; i < languages.length; i++) {
var regex = /[-;]/;
console.log(languages[i].split(regex)[0]);
}
});
</script>
Of course you can use a similar approach with other server technologies as others have mentioned.
For who are looking for Java Server solution
Here is RestEasy
#GET
#Path("/preference-language")
#Consumes({"application/json", "application/xml"})
#Produces({"application/json", "application/xml"})
public Response getUserLanguagePreference(#Context HttpHeaders headers) {
return Response.status(200)
.entity(headers.getAcceptableLanguages().get(0))
.build();
}
i had a diffrent approach, this might help someone in the future:
the customer wanted a page where you can swap languages.
i needed to format numbers by that setting (not the browser setting / not by any predefined setting)
so i set an initial setting depending on the config settings (i18n)
$clang = $this->Session->read('Config.language');
echo "<script type='text/javascript'>var clang = '$clang'</script>";
later in the script i used a function to determine what numberformating i need
function getLangsettings(){
if(typeof clang === 'undefined') clang = navigator.language;
//console.log(clang);
switch(clang){
case 'de':
case 'de-de':
return {precision : 2, thousand : ".", decimal : ","}
case 'en':
case 'en-gb':
default:
return {precision : 2, thousand : ",", decimal : "."}
}
}
so i used the set language of the page and as a fallback i used the browser settings.
which should be helpfull for testing purposes aswell.
depending on your customers you might not need that settings.
I have a hack that I think uses very little code and is quite reliable.
Put your site's files in a subdirectory. SSL into your server and create symlinks to that subdirectory where your files are stored that indicate your languages.
Something like this:
ln -s /var/www/yourhtml /var/www/en
ln -s /var/www/yourhtml /var/www/sp
ln -s /var/www/yourhtml /var/www/it
Use your web server to read HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE and redirect to these "different subdirectories" according to the language value it provides.
Now you can use Javascript's window.location.href to get your url and use it in conditionals to reliably identify the preferred language.
url_string = window.location.href;
if (url_string = "http://yoursite.com/it/index.html") {
document.getElementById("page-wrapper").className = "italian";
}