How to set electron UserAgent

In Electron, setting the UserAgent allows web content to perceive it as being accessed through different browsers or devices. This can be implemented in various ways, depending on where you wish to modify the UserAgent within the application.

1. Setting UserAgent for the Entire Application

If you want to set a unified UserAgent for the entire Electron application, you can configure it via the webPreferences option when creating a BrowserWindow instance:

javascript
const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron');

app.on('ready', () => {
    let mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
        width: 800,
        height: 600,
        webPreferences: {
            userAgent: 'MyApp/1.0'
        }
    });

    mainWindow.loadURL('https://example.com');
});

In the above example, userAgent is set to MyApp/1.0, meaning all web pages loaded through mainWindow will receive this UserAgent string.

2. Setting UserAgent for Specific Requests

If you need to apply a different UserAgent to specific network requests instead of making global changes, you can utilize the options parameter of the loadURL method when loading a URL:

javascript
mainWindow.loadURL('https://example.com', {
    userAgent: 'MySpecialAgent/2.0'
});

This way, only when loading https://example.com will the MySpecialAgent/2.0 UserAgent be used.

3. Dynamically Modifying UserAgent

Sometimes you may need to dynamically change the UserAgent based on the application's state or user preferences. This can be implemented by listening for specific events or condition changes and updating the BrowserWindow's UserAgent:

javascript
function updateUserAgent(window, newUserAgent) {
    window.webContents.setUserAgent(newUserAgent);
}

// Assume dynamically changing UserAgent based on some condition
app.on('some-event', () => {
    updateUserAgent(mainWindow, 'DynamicUserAgent/3.0');
});

This updateUserAgent function can be called at any time based on the application's needs to update the window's UserAgent.

Conclusion

By employing these methods, you can flexibly configure the UserAgent for Electron applications, whether for global uniform settings or for specific scenarios or dynamic changes. This is particularly useful when developing applications with specific website interaction requirements.