what is tinak?
Tinak is a Java component for performing browser recognition and profiling in a Servlet/JSP environment. The term "browser" is used quite loosely here. When we use the term "browser", we are referring to any requesting device or useragent. Therefore, in these pages, we may use the more abstract terms "device", "requesting device" and "useragent".
device recognition
Device Recognition is the process of identifying the make and model of a requesting device. A requesting device should always be recognised to exactly one make/model in a 1:1 mapping. This match is referred to here as the device "Common Name", which is just a unique character string identifier for the device. Example: the device common name for "Internet Explorer 6" might be "MSIE6".
device profiling
Device Profiling is the process of mapping a recognised device to a set of profiles in a 1:n mapping i.e <common-name>:<profile-set>. A profile, like a device, is referred to by a unique character string. A profile might typically be a classification of device based on a device characteristic e.g. the device supports JPEG images. A device is a "member" of a profile. Therefore, as you can imagine, multiple devices may share "membership" of a given profile - they are all "members" of the profile.
Tinak comes with a JSP Tag Library to help write device aware JSP pages. It also comes with a Servlet adapter implementation for adding device recognition and device profiling services to a Servlet.
j2ee deployment
To deploy the core Tinak library see ServletUAContext.
To deploy the Tinak JSP Tag library see the Tinak JSP Tag library.
Note: See Writing Device-Aware JSP Pages for information on how to use the JSP Tag Library.
