Discovering GeoIP Lite: Comprehensive Guide and API Usage Examples

The geoip-lite module offers a localized version of the MaxMind GeoIP database, enabling you to efficiently target geographical regions using IP addresses.

Introduction

With geoip-lite, you can perform IP geolocation lookups quickly in your Node.js applications. Here are some useful APIs provided by the library and how to use them.

Installation

  
    npm install geoip-lite
  

API Examples

Basic Usage

  
    const geoip = require('geoip-lite');
    const ip = '207.97.227.239';
    const geo = geoip.lookup(ip);
    console.log(geo);
    // Output: { range: [ 3483190784, 3483191039 ], country: 'US', region: 'TX', city: 'San Antonio', ll: [ 29.4969, -98.4032 ] }
  

Retrieve Country

  
    const geo = geoip.lookup(ip);
    const country = geo.country;
    console.log(country);
    // Output: 'US'
  

Retrieve City

  
    const geo = geoip.lookup(ip);
    const city = geo.city;
    console.log(city);
    // Output: 'San Antonio'
  

Retrieve Region

  
    const geo = geoip.lookup(ip);
    const region = geo.region;
    console.log(region);
    // Output: 'TX'
  

Retrieve Latitude and Longitude

  
    const geo = geoip.lookup(ip);
    const ll = geo.ll;
    console.log(ll);
    // Output: [29.4969, -98.4032]
  

Error Handling

  
    const ip = 'invalid-ip';
    try {
      const geo = geoip.lookup(ip);
      console.log(geo);
    } catch (err) {
      console.error('Error:', err.message);
    }
  

Integrating geoip-lite with an Example Application

Let’s develop a simple Express application that uses geoip-lite to perform geolocation lookups.

App Example

  
    const express = require('express');
    const geoip = require('geoip-lite');
    const app = express();

    app.get('/geolocate/:ip', (req, res) => {
      const ip = req.params.ip;
      const geo = geoip.lookup(ip);
      if (geo) {
        res.json(geo);
      } else {
        res.status(404).send('Geolocation not found');
      }
    });

    const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;

    app.listen(PORT, () => {
      console.log(`Server running on port ${PORT}`);
    });
  

This basic Express application uses the geoip-lite library to perform geolocation lookups based on an IP address passed as a URL parameter. Try it out!

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