DeviceAtlas & Memcached Development
One of the obstacles that several GEICO web properties faced was the inconsistent method in which device detection was handled. With limited device coverage across various custom-coded solutions, a more uniform solution was strongly desired.
DeviceAtlas was the software chosen to handle server-side device detection. The software determines all available properties of a device by feeding the browser's user agent through a large JSON lookup file.
In order to avoid having a web server parse the JSON file on every page request, a memory caching system (Memcached) was implemented. This memory store allowed for extremely quick and efficient lookups to DeviceAtlas properties which were saved in memory by previous user agents.
Initially, this setup was used to control the redirection logic for the GEICO.com/m/ mobile site. However, with the implementation of responsive design, the mobile detection was retired in favor of feature detection and optimizing content layout.
