Device strings

Dimensions uses string representations of device, i.e. each device (or device class) can be fully identified by a string. Each string is an underscore-separated string in which each token position corresponds to a different detail level of description of the device.

Dimensions supports five detail levels to describe a device:

1. Content type (HTML, WML, etc.)
2. Device type (PC, PDA, etc.)
3. Device subtype, i.e. the user agent (Internet Explorer, etc.)
4. Vendor
5. Model

The final string is an underscore-separated string composed by the string representations of the above detail levels.

Dimensions have knowledge of some devices, in the future this "database" will be expanded (maybe with the contribution of the community...). Some of the supported devices are:

• html: an HTML capable client;
• html_pc: a PC with an HTML client;
• html_pc_ie: a PC with Internet Explorer;
• html_pda: a PDA;
• html_pda_ie: a PDA with Internet Explorer;
• html_phone: a phone capable of displaying HTML;
• wml: (usually) a phone capable of displaying WML.