Question 1

How to check if a user is on a mobile device with Python?

Accepted Answer

Use the user_agents library to parse the user agent string and access the is_mobile attribute. For example, after parsing with parse(ua_string), user_agent.is_mobile returns True for phones like iPhone or Android, as shown in the README with BlackBerry and Samsung examples.

Question 2

Python user agents vs ua-parser: which should I use?

Accepted Answer

Python User Agents is a wrapper that adds convenience attributes like is_touch_capable on top of ua-parser. If you need simple derived flags, use this; for raw parsing control, stick with ua-parser directly. This library abstracts complexity but adds a dependency layer.

Question 3

How to detect bots in web traffic using this library?

Accepted Answer

It provides an is_bot attribute to identify common search engine crawlers. However, it's basic and might miss sophisticated bots; for robust detection, consider combining it with other methods like IP analysis, as user agent spoofing can bypass this.

Question 4

What's the performance impact of using python-user-agents?

Accepted Answer

Performance depends on ua-parser's efficiency. While suitable for typical web apps, it adds parsing overhead; for high-traffic sites, cache results or benchmark, as the library doesn't offer built-in optimization features mentioned in the README.

Question 5

How to use user_agents with Django middleware?

Accepted Answer

Parse the user agent string from request.META['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] in Django. Import the parse function, create a user_agent object, and attach it to the request for attributes like is_mobile, similar to the Flask approach but integrated into Django's request cycle.

Question 6

Can I update the device database for new user agents?

Accepted Answer

No, the library relies on ua-parser's database. To update, you must upgrade the ua-parser package or its YAML files, as python-user-agents doesn't manage detection rules directly, which can delay support for new devices.

python-user-agents

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