Get a user's current location

Question

How can I determine a user's current location based on IP address (I guess it works this way).

You may want to take a look at [GeoIP Country Whois Locator](http://www.phpclasses.org/package/3582-PHP-Determine-the-country-of-an-IP-address-using-GeoIP.html) found at [PHPClasses](http://www.phpclasses.org). — madkris24, Mar 22 '11 at 22:44
[MaxMind GeoIP](http://www.maxmind.com/app/ip-location) is a good service. They also have a free city-level lookup service. — glomad, Mar 22 '11 at 22:35

score 40 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 01 '15 at 15:31

40

<?php
$user_ip = getenv('REMOTE_ADDR');
$geo = unserialize(file_get_contents("http://www.geoplugin.net/php.gp?ip=$user_ip"));
$country = $geo["geoplugin_countryName"];
$city = $geo["geoplugin_city"];
?>

answered Jul 01 '15 at 15:31

Hamza

721
8
8

5

Geoplugin is not best platform. It is limited to 120 actions per minute. It worked for me, but lately it started to show 403 for all requests from my server. Who knows why. (I haven't made those 120 connections in one minute) – Mar 30 '17 at 17:18
4

Useless with those limits. – Michael Rogers Jun 09 '17 at 06:58

Naveen DA · Answer 2 · 2019-08-26T12:42:29.563

35

Edited

Change freegeoip.net into ipinfo.io

<?php    

function get_client_ip()
{
    $ipaddress = '';
    if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'])) {
        $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];
    } else if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'])) {
        $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
    } else if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED'])) {
        $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED'];
    } else if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR'])) {
        $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR'];
    } else if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED'])) {
        $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED'];
    } else if (isset($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])) {
        $ipaddress = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
    } else {
        $ipaddress = 'UNKNOWN';
    }

    return $ipaddress;
}
$PublicIP = get_client_ip();
$json     = file_get_contents("http://ipinfo.io/$PublicIP/geo");
$json     = json_decode($json, true);
$country  = $json['country'];
$region   = $json['region'];
$city     = $json['city'];
?>

edited Aug 26 '19 at 12:42

answered Aug 09 '16 at 13:44

Naveen DA

4,148
4
38
57

6

While this code may answer the question, providing additional context regarding why and/or how this code answers the question improves its long-term value. – Jay Blanchard Apr 24 '17 at 19:31
1

Is there a workaround for localhost servers? My ip address keeps coming up as ::1 – Vince Dec 25 '17 at 20:59
1

@vince Localhost always return ::1 ip address – Naveen DA Dec 26 '17 at 02:29
7

__deprecation_message__: "This API endpoint is deprecated and will stop working on July 1st, 2018. For more information please visit: https://github.com/apilayer/freegeoip#readme", – Moses Schwartz May 23 '18 at 17:09
For what is it necessary to check all the forwarded ip? I thought only check `if(isset(HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR))` is necessary. – klediooo Jul 18 '19 at 17:32
1

And in many countries this will get you the location of the ISP not the actual user – RiggsFolly Dec 02 '20 at 17:29
Found a free API https://ipapi.co/$PublicIP/json , or also single fields can be queried much quicker https://ipapi.co/$PublicIP/languages ! Check the docs at https://ipapi.co/api/#location-of-a-specific-ip – Hristo Apr 26 '22 at 06:28

score 19 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 03 '23 at 20:20

19

<?php
    $query = @unserialize (file_get_contents('http://ip-api.com/php/'));
    if ($query && $query['status'] == 'success') {
        echo 'Hey user from ' . $query['country'] . ', ' . $query['city'] . '!';
    }
    foreach ($query as $data) {
        echo $data . "<br>";
    }
?>

Try this code using this source. *It works!

edited Feb 03 '23 at 20:20

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Mar 08 '17 at 18:48

Adnan Rasheed

866
8
12

8

Do or do not. There is no "try". A ***good answer*** will always have an explanation of what was done and why it was done in such a manner, not only for the OP but for future visitors to SO. – Jay Blanchard Apr 24 '17 at 19:31
Is it a free API? – Pisumathu Apr 27 '22 at 07:46

score 10 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 17 '12 at 07:45

10

Try this code using the hostip.info service:

$country=file_get_contents('http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=');
echo $country;

// Reformat the data returned (Keep only country and country abbr.)
$only_country=explode (" ", $country);

echo "Country : ".$only_country[1]." ".substr($only_country[2],0,4);

edited Aug 17 '12 at 07:45

Jan Gerlinger

7,361
1
44
52

answered Aug 17 '12 at 06:58

Bedh

101
1
2

1

instead of exploding the return you can use the json as return. http://api.hostip.info/get_json.php – Underdog Oct 08 '14 at 11:56
$json_string = 'http://api.hostip.info/get_json.php?ip='.$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; $jsondata = file_get_contents($json_string); $obj = json_decode($jsondata, true); – Underdog Oct 08 '14 at 12:02
This site is not available anymore. – Rohlik Sep 02 '17 at 09:32

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 03 '23 at 19:32

2

As PHP relies on a server, the real-time location can’t be provided. Only a static location can be provided. It is better to avoid to rely on the JavaScript for a location rather than using PHP.

But there is a need to post the JavaScript data to PHP, so that it can easily be accessible to a program on the server.

edited Feb 03 '23 at 19:32

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Jun 09 '16 at 07:24

Venkat Sai

21
1

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Feb 03 '23 at 19:35

1

An IP address gives you a quite unreliable location. You could Ajax the location upon load with JavaScript if it isn't critical to have the location at first. (Also, the user needs to give you its permission to access it.)

HTML5 Geolocation

edited Feb 03 '23 at 19:35

Peter Mortensen

30,738
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105
131

answered Feb 17 '14 at 20:13

Sam Pettersson

3,049
6
23
37

1

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. – Jay Blanchard Apr 24 '17 at 19:31

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Feb 03 '23 at 20:19

0

The old freegeoip API is now deprecated and will be discontinued on 2018-07-01.

The new API is from ipstack. You have to create the account in ipstack. Then you can use the access key in the API URL.

$url = "http://api.ipstack.com/122.167.180.20?access_key=ACCESS_KEY&format=1";
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYPORT, 3128);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$response = json_decode($response);
$city  = $response->city; // You can get all the details like longitude, latitude from the '$response'.

For more information, check at freegeoip (GitHub).

edited Feb 03 '23 at 20:19

Peter Mortensen

30,738
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105
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answered May 14 '18 at 09:45

lalithkumar

3,480
4
24
40

1

This is a paid service. – user2060451 Mar 07 '19 at 02:00
1

The question is not about free service – lalithkumar Mar 07 '19 at 06:30
they have a free. limited tier – mindmischief Jun 13 '21 at 17:55

Get a user's current location

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