ip-location-api v2.3.2

ip-location-api

Fast and customizable nodejs api to get geolocation information from ip address. ip-location-api make a fast lookup by using in-memory database.

This api is created for server-side javascript like Node.js. If you need client-side javascript which works in BROWSER, please try to use @iplookup/country or @iplookup/geocode.

Synopsis

import { lookup } from 'ip-location-api'
// or CJS format
// const { lookup } = require('ip-location-api')

var ip = "207.97.227.239"
var location = lookup(ip)
// If you use Asynchronouns version which is configured with smallMemory=true,
// var location = await lookup(ip)

console.log(location)
{
  country: 'FR',
  region1: 'NOR',
  region1_name: 'Normandy',
  region2: '27', 
  region2_name: 'Eure',
  city: 'Heudicourt',
  // metro: Defined only in US (Aug.2024)
  timezone: 'Europe/Paris',
  eu: 1,
  latitude: 49.3335,
  longitude: 1.6566,
  area: 5,
  postcode: 27860,
  country_name: 'France',
  country_native: 'France',
  phone: [ 33 ],
  continent: 'EU',
  capital: 'Paris',
  currency: [ 'EUR' ],
  languages: [ 'fr' ],
  continent_name: 'Europe'
}

Benchmark

I make a benchmark for making comparison with intel 12700 (2.1GHz), SSD, nodejs v20. You can change the memory usage or lookup time, by customizing location information.

Installation

$ npm i ip-location-api

API

ip-location-api has two modes which are synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronouns one load all data in-memory at startup time, thus it makes fast lookup. Asynchronouns one load smaller data in-memory at startup time, and the other data is loaded from the hard drive for each lookup.

If you have a enough memory, I recommend to use synchronouns one because lookup is over 300 times faster than asynchronouns one.

Field description

Note that as far as possible, the same field names as in geoip-lite are used, but some different field names are used.

Setup the configuration

You can configure the api by 3 way.

• CLI parameters: ILA_FIELDS=latitude,longitude
• Environment variables: ILA_FIELDS=latitude,longitude
• Javascript: await reload({fields: 'latitude,longitude'}) .

The name of CLI prameter and environment variables are same.

Conf key in reload(conf) is named with "LOWER CAMEL", CLI or ENV parameter is named with "SNAKE" with adding "ILA_" (come from Ip-Location-Api).

Update database

npm run updatedb

or

import { updateDb } from 'ip-location-api'
await updateDb(setting)

There are three database update way.

• ILA_LICENSE_KEY=redist
• ILA_LICENSE_KEY=YOUR_GEOLITE2_LICENSE_KEY
• ILA_IP_LOCATION_DB=YOUR_CHOOSEN_DATABSE

When you set "ILA_LICENSE_KEY=redist" which is the dafault setting, it downloads GeoLite2 database from the redistribution repository node-geolite2-redist.

When you set "ILA_LICENSE_KEY=YOUR_GEOLITE2_LICENSE_KEY", it downloads GeoLite2 dastabase from the MaxMind provided server. YOUR_GEOLITE2_LICENSE_KEY should be replaced by a valid GeoLite2 license key. Please follow instructions provided by MaxMind to obtain a license key.

When you set "ILA_IP_LOCATION_DB=YOUR_CHOOSEN_DATABSE", it downloads from the ip-location-db (country type only). You can "YOUR_CHOOSEN_DATABSE" from ip-location-db with country type. For example, "geolite2-geo-whois-asn" is wider IP range country database which is equivalent to GeoLite2 database result for GeoLite2 country covered IP range and geo-whois-asn-country for the other IP range. The other example, "geo-whois-asn" is CC0 licensed database, if you are unable to apply the GeoLite2 License.

After v2.0, the database is created automatically at initial startup, and updated automatically by setting ILA_AUTO_UPDATE which updates twice weekly with default setting.

How to use with an example

When you need only geographic coordinates, please set "ILA_FIELDS=latitude,longitude". You need to create a database for each configuration. After v2.0.0, the database is created at initial running (which takes some seconds), and auto update with ILA_AUTO_UPDATE which update twice weekly with default setting.

The database is created by following CLI

$ npm run updatedb ILA_FIELDS=latitude,longitude

or

$ ILA_FIELDS=latitude,longitude # set environment variable
$ npm run updatedb

or you can create database with 'create.js' which includes the following.

await updateDb({fields:['latitude', 'longitude']})

The CLI command for using app.js which uses ip-location-api is necessary to start with following CLI parameter

$ node app.js ILA_FIELDS=latitude,longitude

or environment variable

$ ILA_FIELDS=latitude,longitude # set environment variable
$ node app.js

or you can write down configuration in reload function of app.js as

await reload({fields:['latitude', 'longitude']})
// or await reload({fields:'latitude,longitude'})

If you need all the data in above field table, setting "ILA_FIELDS=all" and "ILA_ADD_COUNTRY_INFO=true" is the one.

For module bundler (webpack, vite, next.js, etc)

Some module bundlers cannot work with original database system. If module bundlers could not work with ip-location-api, please try to import module as following. It works almost same as original module.

import { lookup } from 'ip-location-api/pack'

It would be better to set directories for database files which have write permission. Without write permission directories, you cannot use this module.

ILA_DATA_DIR=/your_database_directory
ILA_TMP_DATA_DIR=/your_tmporary_directory_for_database

Node.js version

This library supports Node.js >= 14 for ESM and CJS.

License and EULA

There are multiple licenses in this library, one for the software library, and the others for the datadata. Please read the LICENSE and EULA files for details.

The license for the software itself is published under MIT License by sapics.

The GeoLite2 database comes with certain restrictions and obligations, most notably:

• You cannot prevent the library from updating the databases.
• You cannot use the GeoLite2 data:
  • for FCRA purposes,
  • to identify specific households or individuals.

You can read the latest version of GeoLite2 EULA. GeoLite2 database is provided under CC BY-SA 4.0 by MaxMind, so, you need to create attribusion to MaxMind for using GeoLite2 database.

The database of Countries is published under MIT license by Annexare Studio.