Location

Retrieve a users location from their IP address using external web services, or through a flat-file database hosted on your server.

Requirements

Laravel >= 5
PHP 7.0 or greater
cURL extension enabled

Installation

Run the following command in the root of your project:

composer require stevebauman/location

Note: If you're using Laravel 5.5 or above, you can skip the registration of the service provider, as it is registered automatically.

Add the service provider in config/app.php:

Stevebauman\Location\LocationServiceProvider::class,

Publish the config file:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Stevebauman\Location\LocationServiceProvider"

Usage

Retrieving a users location

Note: This method retrieves the users IP address via request()->ip():

$position = Location::get();

// Returns instance of Stevebauman\Location\Position

Retrieving a location with a specific IP address

$position = Location::get('192.168.1.1');

Drivers

Available Drivers

Available drivers at the moment are:

Setting Up MaxMind

To setup MaxMind to retrieve the users location from your own server, download the database file here:

http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoLite2-City.mmdb.gz

Extract the downloaded file (you may need to use an application such as 7zip if on Windows)
Create a maxmind folder inside your database directory (database/maxmind)
Place the GeoLite2-City.mmdb file into the maxmind directory

You should end up with a folder path of: my-laravel-app/database/maxmind/GeoLite2-City.mmdb.

Then, set your default driver to Stevebauman\Location\Drivers\MaxMind::class, and you're all set!

Note: Keep in mind, you'll need to update this file continuously to retrieve the most current information.

Fallback drivers

In the config file, you can specify as many fallback drivers as you wish. It's recommended to install the MaxMind database .mmdb file so your always retrieving some generic location information from the user.

If an exception occurs trying to grab a driver (such as a 404 error if the providers API changes), it will automatically use the next driver in line.

Creating your own drivers

To create your own driver, simply create a class in your application, and extend the abstract Driver:

namespace App\Location\Drivers;

use Illuminate\Support\Fluent;
use Stevebauman\Location\Position;
use Stevebauman\Location\Drivers\Driver;

class MyDriver extends Driver
{
    public function url($ip)
    {
        return "http://driver-url.com?ip=$ip";
    }

    protected function hydrate(Position $position, Fluent $location)
    {
        $position->countryCode = $location->country_code;

        return $position;
    }

    protected function process($ip)
    {
        try {
            $response = json_decode(file_get_contents($this->url($ip)), true);

            return new Fluent($response);
        } catch (\Exception $e) {
            return false;
        }
    }
}

Then, insert your driver class name into the configuration file:

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Driver
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| The default driver you would like to use for location retrieval.
|
*/

'driver' => App\Locations\MyDriver::class,

Versioning

Location is versioned under the Semantic Versioning guidelines as much as possible.

Releases will be numbered with the following format:

<major>.<minor>.<patch>

And constructed with the following guidelines:

Breaking backward compatibility bumps the major and resets the minor and patch.
New additions without breaking backward compatibility bumps the minor and resets the patch.
Bug fixes and misc changes bumps the patch.

Minor versions are not maintained individually, and you're encouraged to upgrade through to the next minor version.

Major versions are maintained individually through separate branches.

aego-/location