Ok. Back to our originally scheduled program. As a new developer, my design decisions often take me into the realm of what the h3ll were you thinking. And while the ideas are generally dope, at least my mom thinks so, the reality usually boils down to me almost always working feverishly to figure out the implementation.
In many cases, the solution search period far outweighs the actual coding time. I find that this exercise of discovery can be better optimized with a little upfront knowledge on where to look and easy instructions on what to do once you land there.
An example of this takes me to a recent experience with adding geolocation to a ride sharing app.
Having accurate geolocation data generally can be the difference between an epic success and a catastrophic disaster, especially in the worlds of targeted marketing and transportation.
In my search on how to integrate geolocation, I found an API from IPWHOIS.io that seems to be fast, reliable, comprehensive and accurate. Following is an example of what a response could look like from a submitted request:
A Few IPWHOIS Selling Points to get you in the Mood
- Free for small projects (i.e. novice developers)
- Fairly easy to integrate (even for novices)
- Provides information about location, currency, language, and more
- Helpful documentation and code samples
- Fast and secure payload delivery
- Provides data in CSV, JSON, and XML formats
Where to Look
You can access more info about the API on their website: http://ipwhois.io
And What to do When You Get There
The website provides pretty decent documentation and examples on how to integrate. So, a good review before you get started will help.
To use IPWHOIS, you basically have to send a request to their API with the desired return format (json, xml, or csv) and your user IP address as part of the URL. Following is an example Python implementation:
Your request will then be rewarded with a payload format of your choice. Following is example payload data received from a json request:
You can also specify a specific field or select collection of fields you want returned in the payload. For example, only getting back country, city, and timezone :
If you want a super simple, fast, reliable way to get geolocation data, then you may want to check out IPWHOIS.io .
