Does the use of Sitecore MaxMind require Sitecore DMS

Question

My customer has Sitecore.NET 6.6.0 (rev. 130214), and we are looking at doing IP address geolocation for some components. I have used the Sitecore MaxMind option in the past and it made things very easy. In this case though the customer does not have a Sitecore DMS license. Can this customer without a Sitecore DMS license use the Sitecore MaxMind service normally?

Answer 1

The Max Mind implementation in Sitecore exposes a MaxMindProvider for the GeoIp lookup manager. That manager is used by DMS rules, so the short answer is they need DMS to use it .

The provider is added in the Sitecore.Analytics.config which is a part of DMS:

<lookupManager defaultProvider="default">
  <providers>
    <clear/>
    <add name="default" type="Sitecore.Analytics.Lookups.MaxMindProvider,Sitecore.Analytics"/>
  </providers>
</lookupManager>

The provider uses a raw web service that returns comma-delimted GeoIP data. The URL is:

http://sitecore1.maxmind.com/app/sc?i={0}&l={1}

Where {0} is the IP to look up and {1} is your Sitecore license ID + a MaxMind account token at the end (defaulted to 00000000 ). I believe this won't work either because your Sitecore license ID does not have DMS added. You may want to have Sitecore support confirm that.

Answer 2

You have to have Analytics running to get GeoIP data, which is then used in the rules engine.

MaxMind provides a free database of their GeoIP data that will cover 98% of your users. I highly recommend rolling your own solution for geo-specific features using this DB. Then you aren't hampered by any licensing issues, Analytics/DMS requirement, the need to call an external site, or MaxMind's built-in limitations for their Sitecore users.

Answer 3

I think it might be worthwhile to have a conversation with the customer's sales rep about it.

I don't believe DMS is a separately licensed component any longer, so the restriction may not still be in place.