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Workspace Browser Control and Browser Detection
Answer ID 7795   |   Last Review Date 02/27/2019

Why does the browser detection script on my site always indicate Internet Explorer 7.0 when the site is loaded in a workspace browser control?

Environment:

Workspace Browser Control

Issue:

For sites that use browser detection, Internet Explorer 7.0 will be indicated if the site is loaded inside a browser control on a workspace. This is also true if an alternate "document mode" is specified for the site using an X-UA-Compatible Meta tag or HTTP header as suggested in the following answer:

Answer ID 6418: Internet Explorer version and Oracle B2C Service Customizations

Resolution:

Please try to use feature detection rather than browser detection whenever necessary for sites that will be displayed inside a workspace browser control.

Cause:

This is the behavior of the .NET/Windows Browser control that we utilize in the Agent Desktop, and we have no control over it.  Unfortunately at this time, there are no good options other than using that control.

The "Browser" control that one can add to a workspace forces Internet Explorer to run in the Internet Explorer 7.0 compatibility or "browser mode" which, essentially, does two things:

  1. Forces Internet Explorer to identify itself as Internet Explorer 7.0 via the user-agent string
  2. Informs Internet Explorer how to render the page by default

The later is known as a "document mode" and it can be overridden by a web developer by the "doctype" of the web page as well as by adding a X-UA-Compatible Meta tag or HTTP header. For example, if a web developer wants the page to be rendered by the latest version of Internet Explorer that has been installed on the agent's workstation, rather than Internet Explorer 7.0, the following meta tag can be added to the document head:

<meta content="IE=Edge">

Changing the document mode of the page, however, does not change the user-agent string that Internet Explorer returns and thus it will continue to identify itself as Internet Explorer 7.0 regardless of which document mode is indicated.

This poses a problem for browser detection scripts which rely on the user-agent string to identify the browser. For this reason, we recommend using feature detection instead which depends upon the document mode.


For additional information, refer to the 'Working with browser controls' section in the Online Help User Guide documentation. To access Oracle B2C Service manuals and documentation online, refer to the Documentation for Oracle B2C Service Products.