This week we'll be making some changes to our Property Dictionary, which our customers will begin to see from next week onwards. The changes will include the addition of some brand new properties, as well as updates to some existing property definitions. These changes will provide more clarity and improve the information we provide to our customers.
The most significant change is the new property, ‘HardwareProfileSource'.
Before this change, we collected device profile data directly from manufacturer websites or from devices themselves. However, from next week onwards, if we are unable to obtain the profile data from the manufacturer's website or directly from the device, we will look for the information from Authoritative sources.
Examples of authoritative sources include:
- Retailers
- Carriers
- Tech News Sites
What does this mean for our customers?
This new property has two main benefits.
Firstly, by obtaining information from authoritative sources, as well as manufacturers and devices, we can expand our device database and continue to strengthen our device detection capabilities.
Secondly, as the property will let you know whether the profile source has come directly from the manufacturer or from an authoritative source, you can feel confident that you know where our data is coming from.
The full list of changes can be found below. If you have any questions about any of the changes, then don't hesitate to get in touch.
New Property: DeviceRAMVariants
Indicates the volatile RAM capacity options for the device in megabytes (MB). If no variants are found, then the value returned will be the same as 'DeviceRAM'.
New Property: HardwareProfileSource
Indicates the source of the profile's specifications. This property will return 'Manufacturer' value if the profile data was obtained from the manufacturer of the device or the device itself. This property will return ‘Authoritative' value if the profile data was not obtained from the manufacturer or the device itself but other third-party sources (this may include retailers, social media, carriers, etc). This property will return 'Legacy' value if the profile data was obtained prior to 51degrees differentiating between Manufacturer and Authoritative. This property will return 'N/A' value if the profile data was not obtained due to unidentifiable User-Agent. The example profiles are: Generic Android Unknown, Unknown Tablet, etc.
New Property: InternalStorageVariants
Indicates the internal persistent storage (ROM capacity) options the device can be supplied with in gigabytes (GB), including the device's Operating System and bundled applications. This could also be referred to as 'Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)' or 'Non Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM)'. If no variants are found, then the value returned will be the same as 'MaxInternalStorage'.
DeviceRAM
Indicates the maximum volatile RAM capacity of the device in megabytes (MB). Where a device has different RAM capacity options, the largest option available is returned.
IsCrawler
Indicates if the source of the web traffic identifies itself as operating without human interaction for the purpose of monitoring the availability or performance of a web site, retrieving a response for inclusion in a search engine or is requesting structured data such as via an API. Such sources are often referred to as crawlers, bots, robots, spiders, probes, monitors or HTTP services among other terms. Where the source pretends to be a device operating with human interaction, such as a smartphone or tablet, this property will return, 'False'.
IsSmallScreen
Indicates if the device is a mobile with a screen size less than 2.5 inches even where the device is marketed as a Smartphone.
IsSmartphone
Indicates whether the device can make and receive phone calls, has a screen size greater than or equal to 2.5 inches, runs a modern operating system (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry etc.), is not designed to be a wearable technology and is marketed by the vendor as a Smartphone.
IsTablet
Indicates if the device is primarily marketed as a tablet or phablet and has a screen size equal to or greater than 7 inches.
MaxInternalStorage
Indicates the maximum amount of internal persistent storage (ROM capacity) with which the device is supplied in gigabytes (GB), including the space used by the device's Operating System and bundled applications. This could also be referred to as 'Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)' or 'Non Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM)'. Where a device has different internal storage options, the largest option available is returned.
MaxNumberOfSIMCards
Indicates the maximum number of 'Universal Integrated Circuit Cards (UICC - more commonly known as, SIM)' the device can support including both removable and embedded. If the device doesn't support any UICC then a value of '0' is returned.
SupportedSIMCardTypes
Indicates whether the 'Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC - more commonly known as, SIM)' is removable or embedded. If removable, the form factor of the UICC is returned.
Click here to see a full list of our properties in the Property Dictionary