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NAME

GeoIP2::Database::Reader - Perl API for GeoIP2 databases

VERSION

version 2.006002

SYNOPSIS

use 5.008;

use GeoIP2::Database::Reader;

my $reader = GeoIP2::Database::Reader->new(
    file    => '/path/to/database',  # e.g. /home/maxmind/db/GeoIP2-Country.mmdb
    locales => [ 'en', 'de', ]
);

my $city = $reader->city( ip => '24.24.24.24' );
my $country = $city->country();
print $country->iso_code(), "\n";

DESCRIPTION

This class provides a reader API for all GeoIP2 databases. Each method returns a different model class.

If the database does not return a particular piece of data for an IP address, the associated attribute is not populated.

USAGE

The basic API for this class is the same for all database types. First you create a database reader object with your file and locale params. Then you call the method corresponding to your database type, passing it the IP address you want to look up.

If the request succeeds, the method call will return a model class for the method point you called.

If the database cannot be read, the reader class throws an exception.

IP GEOLOCATION USAGE

IP geolocation is inherently imprecise. Locations are often near the center of the population. Any location provided by a GeoIP2 database should not be used to identify a particular address or household.

CONSTRUCTOR

This class has a single constructor method:

GeoIP2::Database::Reader->new()

This method creates a new object. It accepts the following arguments:

  • file

    This is the path to the GeoIP2 database which you'd like to query. The path should include the filename.

  • locales

    This is an array reference where each value is a string indicating a locale. This argument will be passed on to record classes to use when their name() methods are called.

    The order of the locales is significant. When a record class has multiple names (country, city, etc.), its name() method will look at each element of this array ref and return the first locale for which it has a name.

    Note that the only locale which is always present in the GeoIP2 data in "en". If you do not include this locale, the name() method may end up returning undef even when the record in question has an English name.

    Currently, the valid list of locale codes is:

    • de - German

    • en - English

      English names may still include accented characters if that is the accepted spelling in English. In other words, English does not mean ASCII.

    • es - Spanish

    • fr - French

    • ja - Japanese

    • pt-BR - Brazilian Portuguese

    • ru - Russian

    • zh-CN - simplified Chinese

    Passing any other locale code will result in an error.

    The default value for this argument is ['en'].

REQUEST METHODS

All of the request methods accept a single argument:

  • ip

    This must be a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address. This is the address that you want to look up using the GeoIP2 web service.

    Unlike the web service client class, you cannot pass the string "me" as your ip address.

$reader->asn()

This method returns a GeoIP2::Model::ASN object.

$reader->connection_type()

This method returns a GeoIP2::Model::ConnectionType object.

$reader->country()

This method returns a GeoIP2::Model::Country object.

$reader->city()

This method returns a GeoIP2::Model::City object.

$reader->domain()

This method returns a GeoIP2::Model::Domain object.

$reader->isp()

This method returns a GeoIP2::Model::ISP object.

$reader->enterprise()

This method returns a GeoIP2::Model::Enterprise object.

$reader->anonymous_ip()

This method returns a GeoIP2::Model::AnonymousIP object.

OTHER METHODS

$reader->metadata()

This method returns a MaxMind::DB::Metadata object containing information about the database.

EXCEPTIONS

In the case of a fatal error, the reader will throw a GeoIP2::Error::Generic or GeoIP2::Error::IPAddressNotFound exception object.

This error class has an $error->message() method and overload stringification to show that message. This means that if you don't explicitly catch errors they will ultimately be sent to STDERR with some sort of (hopefully) useful error message.

WHAT DATA IS RETURNED?

While many of the databases return the same basic records, the attributes which can be populated vary between model classes. In addition, while a database may offer a particular piece of data, MaxMind does not always have every piece of data for any given IP address.

Because of these factors, it is possible for any model class to return a record where some or all of the attributes are unpopulated.

See http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geoip2/web-services for details on what data each end point may return.

Every record class attribute has a corresponding predicate method so you can check to see if the attribute is set.

SUPPORT

Bugs may be submitted through https://github.com/maxmind/GeoIP2-perl/issues.

AUTHORS

  • Dave Rolsky <drolsky@maxmind.com>

  • Greg Oschwald <goschwald@maxmind.com>

  • Mark Fowler <mfowler@maxmind.com>

  • Olaf Alders <oalders@maxmind.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2013 - 2019 by MaxMind, Inc.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.