can php detect client browser monitor size/resolution?

Question

Php can detect IP, hostname, client agent etc. Can php detect client browser monitor size/resolution?

Answer 1

I was looking for this as well, but found none of these answers really answered the question! Indeed, there is no way for PHP to know the screen resolution since it is running on the server side. Since that information is not passed along in HTTP environment variables, we need another route. Javascript is one alternative.

The example below is a PHP page that checks for a resolution variable being passed in the HTTP request. If it does not find that resolution variable, then it creates a brief bit of JavaScript on the page that passes that variable and the height and width along in a redirect back to itself. Of course, when the page is loaded again after the redirect all the variables will be set and PHP will know the resolution.

     
     
";     
    } else {
        // Code to be displayed if resolution is detected     
        if(isset($_GET['width']) && isset($_GET['height'])) {     
            echo "Width: " . $_GET['width'] . " and Height: " . $_GET['height'] . "
";
        } else {     
            echo "Resolution not detected.";
        }     
    }
?>

In the end I found this a pretty unsatisfactory solution. It works, but it is ugly, adding cruft to the URL and requiring a redirect. Still, it may inspire someone to post a better answer. FYI, credit where credit is due, this answer was inspired by this post.