iRule using WURFL API

Hi Scott,

 

 

Are you just trying to identify a mobile client by user-agent? If so, here is a recent discussion:

 

 

Detecting mobile/wap browsers via user-agent and other headers

 

http://devcentral.f5.com/Forums/tabid/1082223/asg/50/showtab/groupforums/aff/5/aft/86313/afv/topic/Default.aspx86381

 

 

Or if you need the full capability reporting of WURFL, making an API call would probably be best. If the database size is ~12Mb and millions of records, you probably wouldn't want to load it into an LTM iRule table. In current LTM versions for querying an outside resource from an iRule are somewhat limited. You could use HTTP::retry to make an HTTP request to a webservice and then use logic in the iRule to handle the client's HTTP request. Deb wrote an article on this a while back:

 

 

Conditioning iRule Logic on External Information - 01 - HTTP::retry

 

http://devcentral.f5.com/Default.aspx?tabid=63&articleType=ArticleView&articleId=105

 

 

Aaron

Aaron,

 

 

Yes, I'm looking for the capability reporting from WURFL. The HTTP::retry is an interesting idea, thanks. Reading Deb's article, has "exec" been disabled as a command within an iRule? That might throw off my api approach.

 

 

Scott

HTTP::retry is probably the easiest, supported method for doing this in current versions. Yes, exec is disabled:

 

 

http://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/default.aspx/iRules/DisabledTclCommands.html

 

 

Aaron

Thanks Aaron. One more question, and I can search for it, but do you have any examples handy on HTTP:retry to a webservice? Deb's article was calling a cgi.

 

 

Scott

In Deb's example, the request which is retried to the webservice is set on this line:

set LB_request [HTTP::request]

So instead of using the client's original HTTP request, you could set it to something custom. If this was the request you wanted to send:

POST /StockQuote HTTP/1.1
Host: www.stockquoteserver.com
Content-Type: text/xml; charset="utf-8"
Content-Length: nnnn
SOAPAction: "Some-URI"


    
        
            DIS
        
    

Here is something you could try testing:

set LB_request {POST /StockQuote HTTP/1.1
Host: www.stockquoteserver.com
Content-Type: text/xml; charset="utf-8"
Content-Length: nnnn
SOAPAction: "Some-URI"


    
        
            DIS
        
    
}

You'd need to manually calculate the payload length and set the content-length header accordingly.

Aaron

Thanks Aaron. I really appreciate the responses. I was able to get the pywurfl working w/ an OOB request to a cgi. Then either redirect to the mobile site or use the HTTP:retry to process the original request. I trimmed down Deb's irule a little by having the cgi set a header. That way I could skip collecting and interrogating the response data. Just checked the header on the response. Thanks again.

 

 

Scott

Hi Scott,

 

 

Glad to hear it's working for you. For future reference, would you mind posting a sanitized copy of our rule?

 

 

Thanks, Aaron