Geocoder Gem - Ruby On Rails

Question

I just included the Geocoder gem into my app. Everything works perfect but i was wondering if i can user the gem even further.

My application has got users and they are allowed to add articles. At the moment i can their IP address using

 @article.ip_address = request.remote_ip

I have looked for a gem which can help me convert that IP address to country name but i can't find anything. Since i am using geocoder and i realize that on their website they auto detect my IP, City and Country. I was wondering how i can implement this to my controller.

def create
@article = Breeder.new(params[:breeder])
@article.user = current_user
@article.ip_address = request.remote_ip

respond_to do |format|
  if @article.save
    format.html { redirect_to @article, notice: 'Article was successfully created.' }
    format.json { render json: @article, status: :created, location: @article }
  else
    format.html { render action: "new" }
    format.json { render json: @article.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
  end
end

end

The idea is to detect articles which are not from the UK.

https://github.com/alexreisner/geocoder

http://www.rubygeocoder.com/

Answer 1

You can use geoip gem.

Download GeoIP.dat.gz from http://www.maxmind.com/app/geolitecountry . unzip the file. The below assumes under #{RAILS_ROOT}/db dir.

@geoip ||= GeoIP.new("#{RAILS_ROOT}/db/GeoIP.dat")    
remote_ip = request.remote_ip  
if remote_ip != "127.0.0.1" #todo: check for other local addresses or set default value
  location_location = @geoip.country(remote_ip)
  if location_location != nil     
    @model.country = location_location[2]
  end
end

Answer 2

Yes, you can use Geocoder to geocode IP address. Geocoder would adds a location methods to Request so you just need to:

sender_ip = request.remote_ip
sender_country = request.location.country
sender_city = request.location.city

That works for me. Hope it helps.

Answer 3

Maybe GeoIP is an alternaternative for you:

https://github.com/cjheath/geoip

Its really simple. Im not that confident to geocoder but if you definitfly want to use it you might watch the railscast that deals with it.

http://railscasts.com/episodes/273-geocoder

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