How Can JavaScript Accurately Detect User Browser Language Preferences?

JavaScript Approaches to Detect Browser Language Preference

Detecting browser language preference with JavaScript poses challenges, particularly for settings configured in Internet Explorer and Firefox. While browsers like Chrome and Safari have properties such as navigator.language and navigator.userLanguage that provide access to language information, these properties often fail to reflect preferences set in specific browser menus.

Limitations of Browser Settings

The main issue is that browser settings do not directly affect the navigator.language property accessible through JavaScript. Instead, they impact the HTTP Accept-Language header. Unfortunately, this header is unavailable to JavaScript, leaving programmers in a quandary.

Workaround Using Third-Party Script

To circumvent this limitation, a workaround using a Google App Engine script (http://ajaxhttpheaders.appspot.com) has been devised. This script retrieves HTTP request headers via JSONP and returns the Accept-Language header value.

Usage Example

// jQuery example
$.ajax({ 
    url: "http://ajaxhttpheaders.appspot.com", 
    dataType: 'jsonp', 
    success: function(headers) {
        language = headers['Accept-Language'];
        nowDoSomethingWithIt(language);
    }
});

jQuery Plugin

For convenience, a jQuery plugin that wraps this functionality is available on GitHub: https://github.com/dansingerman/jQuery-Browser-Language

App Engine Code

The following code is the core logic running on AppEngine:

class MainPage(webapp.RequestHandler):
    def get(self):
        headers = self.request.headers
        callback = self.request.get('callback')

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