Adding a mobile device type to Mobile Search

In a new installation of Mobile Search, some mobile device types are already included in the <DeviceSpecificSettings> section in Web.Config.

Mobile Search also accepts valid connections from mobile device types that are not included in Web.Config. You only need to add a new device if you want to specify the maximum widths of the two columns on the search results page. If the device is not included in Web.Config, Mobile Search uses the default maximum column width settings.

You add a mobile device type by specifying its user agent string in Web.Config. To add one particular mobile device type, enter its complete user agent string. To add a range of mobile device types, enter a partial user agent string that identifies all of them.

See “To add a mobile device type”.

To find the user agent string, connect to the Mobile Search server from the device and view the Mobile Search client information.

See “To find the user agent string of a mobile device”.

For example, suppose that your organization uses mobile devices that are named NewMobile 9100, 9300, 9500, and 9700. Each connection request includes a user agent string that starts with one of the following:

NewMobile9100/...
NewMobile9300/...
NewMobile9500/...
NewMobile9700/...

To configure all these mobile device types and any others in the 9000 range, enter the partial user agent string NewMobile9 in Web.Config. Mobile Search matches the string from the left, so the partial user agent string must be common to the start of each string.

Mobile Search reads through the device definitions until it finds a match with the user agent string in a connection request. If you add a specific entry for the NewMobile 9300, place that entry before the generic entry (NewMobile9) for the rest of the range.

To find the user agent string of a mobile device

  1. On the mobile device, open the Web browser.

  2. Go to the following URL:

    https://server/mobilesearch/ClientInfo.aspx

    where server is the Mobile Search server.

  3. On the read-only page that is displayed, find the entry named User Agent String.

To add a mobile device type

  1. In Web.Config, find the <DeviceSpecificSettings> section.

  2. Add an entry in <DeviceSpecificSettings> in the following format:

    <add DeviceName="device_name" ua="user_agent_string" col1_width="maximum_number_of_characters" col2_width="maximum_number_of_characters"></add>

    where:

    • device_name is any name that you choose to identify this entry in Web.Config.

    • user_agent_string is a full user agent string or a partial user agent string. This value is not case-sensitive.

    • maximum_number_of_characters is a value between 10 and 100 that specifies the maximum column width in characters on the search results page.

  3. Save and close Web.Config.