User Agent Spoofing

[Pesala]

There are some sites that only work well if the user agent is changed. Although this can be done using the Developer Tools, this is way too inaccessible for ordinary users.

Add a popup field on the Status Bar to select the user agent as in Opera 12.18's "Identify as" field.

[marcd7]

Yes, and there are sites that don't work at all without spoofing, such as https://www.hoopladigital.com/
Built-in functionality is always going to be preferable to using an extension like User-Agent Switcher.

[Pesala]

@marcd7 Contact such sites and tell them (politely) to support the top rated browser

I viewed the site in Firefox and suggested that they should support both Opera 51 and Vivaldi. I got a reply — they will pass on my feedback to the development team.

[Chas4]

@pesala In my email signature for the past 10 years I have had:

"
Why Open the Web?

Despite the connecting purpose of the Web, it is not entirely open to all of its users.
When used correctly, HTML documents can be displayed across platforms and devices.
However, many devices are excluded access to Web content.
"

I also try to contact the site via their fill out a support request page, email or Twitter if they have an account that replies. It is true having the UA spoofing hidden in developer tools is not good for the average user. Opera (Presto) had it in the edit site preferences, Safari has it in the Develop Menu (the menu is enabled in the Advanced tab of Safari preferences).

[newscpq]

+1

[carson911]

I support the addition of a user agent switcher, because many websites work correctly only after presenting the browser as Chrome, while writing for support does not give answers, examples of such sites are Canva.com or the Polish bank T-mobile.

[ozoratsubasa]

This is necessary still.
+1

@carson911 Chrome the new "IE".

[JoeHunter]

Your description with screen clip is an excellent description of the request.

I would like to add one minor which would make it even better, but isn't as critical:

Make the change site or domain dependent so that it would only be made for the specific instances where it might help. I run into a problem now and then where a page won't load but suggest that Opera will work.

[LonM]

@joehunter I think it would fit nicely as a "Site Setting":

Then it could be set in either for everything as a default, or by clicking the site settings box on individual pages.

[becm]

@lonm this would lead to (potentially) different user agents for main sites and 3rd party resources.

There will be clashes on browser sniffing done by the main site and the outsourced JS on a different domain (CDN).
Until session context management is a thing in Vivaldi, a tab-(or window-) specific setting is likely the way to go.

[Catweazle]

I find it outrageous to have to use a UA in different websites, which discriminate against a user for not using a specific browser. It should be banned.
This is an intolerable disregard to users.
If access to a website is prevented, for real technical reasons and not by using a browser that does not appear in a list of the 4 main ones

[JoeHunter]

@lonm OK.....you obviously know more about the settings stuff than I do. That makes it sound even easier.

But then again what do I remember about programming in anything other than REXX.

[rseiler]

What is the browser.js equivalent for Vivaldi? It would be nice to take a look at it once in a while to see what's been added.

And what hasn't been, for some reason.

[Too_many_browsers]

@catweazle Correct. Please do not change the browser. The sites should be changed.

[Catweazle]

@too_many_browsers said in User Agent Spoofing:

@catweazle Correct. Please do not change the browser. The sites should be changed.

Yes, I will go back to IE to enter the pages, I'm sure that if LOL

[Pesala]

@catweazle R.D. Laing said:

Do not adjust your mind, the fault is in reality.

Anyone who publishes and maintains a website gets to decide the conditions for using it. Anyone hosting a forum gets to decide the forum rules. If anyone does not accept the rules they are free to go elsewhere. You may not like the reality, but you cannot change it, so it wiser to adjust your mind to accept reality as it is.

An Open With context menu is all that is needed for these stubborn sites that do not accept Vivaldi:

Open With Context Menu

[Catweazle]

I know that the reality is this and a webmaster can put the conditions to enter his page, but to limit it by using a certain browser is as absurd as limit a parking or streets in a city to certain brands of cars.
Yes, a webmaster has this right, but the user also has the right to remember his parents

[Pesala]

@catweazle Only EVs and low emission vehicles can enter Central London free of charge. Only disabled drivers can use the parking bays nearest to the store's entrance. Only buses, Black Cabs and cycles permitted in Oxford Street, etc.

[Catweazle]

@pesala said in User Agent Spoofing:

@catweazle Only EVs and low emission vehicles can enter Central London free of charge. Only disabled drivers can use the parking bays nearest to the store's entrance. Only buses, Black Cabs and cycles permitted in Oxford Street, etc.

I do not mean this, it is clear that the cities restrict the use of polluting vehicles, I mean that they impede your passage if you do not use a Mercedes or a BMW, even if your car pollutes much less.
A just limitation would be, as some websites do, to put a warning, that the page is optimized for a determined browser and that therefore there may be problems with which you use (or not), but not, as it has happened to me that not even I can edit my own page in the new Google Sites design, if I do not use Chrome, Firefox or Opera, I will not be able to access the editor in MY page with Vivaldi and it forces me to use the UA to do it. This is absurd and I feel it almost with a personal contempt and insult.

[zhangdl]

@becm said in User Agent Spoofing:

a tab-(or window-) specific setting is likely the way to go.

Does this mean one will need to set the user agent manually every time of opening it (in a different/new tab)?