Getting Started with IP Geolocation API
You can connect to the IP Geolocation API in any number of coding languages, the most common is JavaScript. However, because we want to customize the contents of the page, we don’t want to rely on a front-end technology. Instead we’re going to write the page before it gets to the user, with PHP. The first thing you want to do is create a new file, name it “country.php” and save it to your dev environment, or open up your ftp client and upload it to a PHP enabled web space. Next we can edit the file’s code. Open the PHP file:<?phpThen we need to create a function to grab the location of the IP address we supply:
function grabIpInfo($ip) { }Don’t worry if you’re not used to writing functions in PHP, all will become clear. (In simple terms, when we repeat that function’s name, passing an IP address to it, the code inside the brackets will run.) Inside those brackets, we’re going to use PHP’s built-in cURL to get the data from the API:
$curl = curl_init();This code initiates the cURL session. Next we need to set the options on the cURL session. The first is very important, it’s the URL to load, which will be https://api.ipgeolocationapi.com/geolocate/ and on the end we have to append the actual IP address we want to look up (remember we’re passing this into the function, so we just need to use the $ip parameter):
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.ipgeolocationapi.com/geolocate/" . $ip);The next option tells cURL to return the data as a string, rather than just outputting it to the page:
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);Next we execute the cURL session, saving the data to a new variable that we can return from the function:
$returnData = curl_exec($curl);Now we close the cURL session:
curl_close($curl);Lastly we return the data from the function:
return $returnData;Remember all of that code was inside the curly brackets of the function. Now, we can call the function as often as we like and access the data, from outside the function:
$ipInfo = grabIpInfo("91.213.103.0");Our $ipInfo variable now has a ton of great data returned about that IP address. If you’d like to see it, you just output the variable using PHP’s echo:
echo $ipInfo;Finally, don’t forget to close the PHP:
?>Now you can run your file in a browser, you’ll see something like this:
{"continent":"Europe","address_format":"{{recipient}}\n{{street}}\n{{postalcode}} {{city}}\n{{country}}","alpha2":"DE","alpha3":"DEU","country_code":"49","international_prefix":"00","ioc":"GER","gec":"GM","name":"Germany","national_destination_code_lengths":[2,3,4,5],"national_number_lengths":[6,7,8,9,10,11],"national_prefix":"0","number":"276","region":"Europe","subregion":"Western Europe","world_region":"EMEA","un_locode":"DE","nationality":"German","eu_member":true,"eea_member":true,"vat_rates":{"standard":19,"reduced":[7],"super_reduced":null,"parking":null},"postal_code":true,"unofficial_names":["Germany","Deutschland","Allemagne","Alemania","ドイツ","Duitsland"],"languages_official":["de"],"languages_spoken":["de"],"geo":{"latitude":51.165691,"latitude_dec":"51.20246505737305","longitude":10.451526,"longitude_dec":"10.382203102111816","max_latitude":55.0815,"max_longitude":15.0418962,"min_latitude":47.2701115,"min_longitude":5.8663425,"bounds":{"northeast":{"lat":55.0815,"lng":15.0418962},"southwest":{"lat":47.2701115,"lng":5.8663425}}},"currency_code":"EUR","start_of_week":"monday"}It’s incredible that we can grab all of that data so easily, but it’s not actually all that useful. We need to be able to pick out parts of that code. Go back and delete the line of code that begins with “echo”, and replace it with the following:
$ipJsonInfo = json_decode($ipInfo);That line converts the JSON string into an object we can access. Next echo the part of the data you want to. In this case, the name property gives us the country name:
echo $ipJsonInfo->name;Run your file again, and you’ll see the country name “Germany” in your browser. That’s cool, but there’s one more thing we need to do before this code is really useful, and that’s find the IP address dynamically, so that we’re looking up the country name of whomever is accessing the page. IP Geolocation API will do that for you if you access it with JavaScript (you simply omit the IP address altogether). Unfortunately, we’re using PHP, but fortunately, PHP gives us a really simple way to access the current user’s IP address, $_SERVER[“REMOTE_ADDR”]. Replace the IP address in the function call with the dynamic version:
$ipInfo = grabIpInfo($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]);When you now run the code you’ll get your own country output to the browser. (If you don’t see anything, you’re probably testing locally so you don’t have a detectable IP address, upload to your webspace to see the file working correctly.) Here’s the full code:
<?php function grabIpInfo($ip) { $curl = curl_init(); curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.ipgeolocationapi.com/geolocate/" . $ip); curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE); $returnData = curl_exec($curl); curl_close($curl); return $returnData; } $ipInfo = grabIpInfo($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]); $ipJsonInfo = json_decode($ipInfo); echo $ipJsonInfo->name; ?>
Simple Geolocation
As you can see, accessing geolocation data with the IP Geolocation API is incredibly fast and simple. And being able to access this kind of data for free is an incredible resource for any developer. IP Geolocation API’s data is all run from the MaxMind database—one of the most trusted sources—which means you’re getting reliable, and accurate data, from a premium provider, at zero cost. IP Geolocation API is the perfect place to start experimenting with geolocation. Once you get started, it will become an essential part of every user experience you design. [-- Featured image via DepositPhotos --] [-- This is a sponsored post on behalf of IP Geolocation API --]WDD Staff
WDD staff are proud to be able to bring you this daily blog about web design and development. If there's something you think we should be talking about let us know @DesignerDepot.
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