Description
This plugin would figure out a user location (country and city, but have in mind that the city information is only 60% reliable) by matching his IP address to an IP addresses database. The information would then be stored in a cookie and in a global variable, to be used by other plugins or themes. This happens quietly in the background without the user seeing anything.
Furthermore, for sites using qTranslate X for multilanguage, it can set the language of the site upon the user’s first visit, using country-based rules that you set up in the plugin options. Normally qTranslate X offers automatic setting of language based on the browser language, but in many countries browser localisation is not as popular and a lot of people use english language browsers, so this method is not reliable and some people would prefer to set the language based on the user’s country.
This plugin does not do much on its own (except for the integration with qTranslate) – it provides valuable data to be integrated with other code on your website. The idea behind it is to have a fast, simple and reliable tool for getting location, which could be used on a per-need basis. The plugin loads no scripts and no stylesheets and uses class autoloading to load its code only when it’s actually needed.
It also does its best to recognize robots, crawlers and content fetchers and only run for regular site visitors.
Future verions will also provide a tool for precise geolocation, using the user’s GPS and WiFi data (html5 geolocation).
Features
Automatically gets country and city by IP address and saves it in a cookie and a global variable
Possible qTranslate X language setting based on country, upon first visit
Ability to get precise geolocation information by asking for user permissions and using his GPS and WiFi data