GLA - Geographic Location Awareness for vBulletin

[mfyvie]

*** Staff note: The author of this modification has passed away in a diving accident (http://www.englishforum.ch/announcements/20529-mourning-loss-friend-leader-innovator-genuinely-nice-guy.html). We wish his family all strength in dealing with this traggic issue. ***

GLA - Geographic Location Awareness for vBulletin

What does this do?

GLA adds an additional layer of information into your vBulletin site (visitors' country name). GLA doesn't output anything to the user, or change any display on your forum, it simply adds additional information which is then available to other programs or mods.

But what can I use it for?

There are many applications, but the main idea is that this mod enables other mod writers to very easily add location awareness functions into their own mods. If you were thinking of writing a mod to display a person's registration country in the postbit, it's now very easy to do.

Why should I download and install this?

Unless you are also going to install one of the other mods which requires GLA, there isn't much point. If you are a developer, you might install this to add functionality to your own mods.

How will I update this?

Easy - you can update the database used for matching country names to IP addresses yourself - it's very easy. Full instructions are provided in the install.txt file inside the zip file.

How do I install?

Download the zip file and look for install.txt. But basically it's easy - upload the contents of the upload folder to your forum directory, and import the enclosed .xml file. That's it.

How do I know if it is working?

A test script is provided that will test every aspect of your GLA installation to inform you of any potential problems. Please see the installation instructions for information about this test script.

What about flags?

This includes flags, meaning that other mods won't have to package flags. You can change the flags if you like, instructions are provided.



How about a quick summary of features?
Fast - GLA adds almost no overhead. This is important for big sites. Only a single query is executed each time a session is created
Transparent - new variables are automatically available to any part of your site
Updateable - you can update the database yourself
Free - a free database is used
Accurate - the database provider claims 98% accuracy
Configuration - absolutely nothing to configure for this mod (since it just provides data to other mods)
Extendible - GLA may encourage other mod developers to add location features. Why not ask the author of your favourite mod to use GLA? Were you thinking of making a mod which uses location data, but didn't know how? GLA solves the problem for you - now all you need to do is read a variable
Easy developer information - hints and tips are provided with the zip file to make life easier for developersIs there a list of mods that currently use GLA?



Yes, a list will be maintained here. Please let me know if you find a mod which requires GLA that isn't listed, so I can add it. The current list of GLA mods is as follows:
Country Display for Who's Online (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/misc.php?do=producthelp&pid=gla_who_online)
Check Proxy RBL on Registration (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1289436&postcount=168) (unsupported, hack for an existing mod)Before posting on this thread:

Please post on this thread only for issues relating to GLA itself. If you have an issue that concerns a mod that uses GLA, please post on the appropriate thread (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/misc.php?do=producthelp&pid=gla_who_online) for that mod. If you have an issue which concerns the underlying functionality of GLA itself, then post here.

Even though this is a required mod from another mod and may be fairly boring, please click install if you are using it. Support requests from people who have not clicked install may not be answered.

No screen shots for this mod, since there's nothing to see.

Version history
1.0 (07.07.07) Initial version

[mfyvie]

Reserved

[TTG]

Sounds like it could be a useful addition .. thanks mfyvie .. look forward to seeing future mods utilising this hack.
Clicked install thingy :up:

[yahoooh]

great to add addon like :prevent visitors to register from specific country

[mfyvie]

great to add addon like :prevent visitors to register from specific country

Actually that was why I wrote GLA in the first place. However there is a mod that does almost the same thing here (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=131852). Rather than re-invent the wheel I've sent the author a PM and asked him to consider adding functionality based on GLA, if installed.

[agiacosa]

Just a suggestion, but it would be very useful to be able to get statistics on what countries our members are from. This helps with targeting and selling ads.

Thanks.

[wizardan]

Flawless install.
Many thanks.

[mfyvie]

Just a suggestion, but it would be very useful to be able to get statistics on what countries our members are from. This helps with targeting and selling ads.

Exactly, this system makes it very easy for you (or someone else) to build such a mod, using the variables that GLA provides.

GLA itself doesn't seem to add features by itself, it merely acts as a layer or additional information that other people can use to develop their own template edits or plugins. With your suggestion, it could be as simple as adding a plugin to run after GLA which just logs the country to a flat text file, or adding to the hook which fires after a member logs in could record this information just for members.

I should point out however that webstats packages like awstats already provide this functionality based on your web logs.

[steven s]

I would love to have the country flag in the postbit template.

[mfyvie]

I would love to have the country flag in the postbit template.

There's a boatload of requests in the mod requests section for things like that. Maybe people should dig up those requests and add to them saying that it is now really easy for a developer (or anyone really) to make mods like that if they require GLA to be installed.

Hopefully this will inspire someone to write a mod like the one you suggested. I've thought of it too, but am too busy with other mods at the moment.

[solong2]

i did not get the option in whois online

[mfyvie]

No you won't. This mod doesn't do anything to the Who's Online. I suggest you read the instructions and click install if you'd like me to support you.

If you are referring to the who's online mod - you are on the wrong thread.

[steven s]

i did not get the option in whois online
You need to install.
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=151600

[Ahsin1]

I Install It now my forum not working when i open i get this msg

Warning: Unknown(/home/pakcan/public_html/includes/gla.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /global.php(356) : eval()'d code on line 80

Fatal error: (null)() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home/pakcan/public_html/includes/gla.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/pakcan/public_html/global.php(356) : eval()'d code on line 80

[mfyvie]

Fatal error: (null)() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home/pakcan/public_html/includes/gla.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/pakcan/public_html/global.php(356) : eval()'d code on line 80

Did you upload the files to their correct locations? Did you put gla.php in your includes directory, and can you verify that it is there?

You can disable the product until you resolve the problem. Please check the instructions again to make sure you've followed them.

[Ahsin1]

Did you upload the files to their correct locations? Did you put gla.php in your includes directory, and can you verify that it is there?

You can disable the product until you resolve the problem. Please check the instructions again to make sure you've followed them.


I Unistall It But it not working i am getting that massege . when i open forums but admin cp is working fine

[mfyvie]

I Unistall It But it not working i am getting that massege . when i open forums but admin cp is working fine

If you really have installed the product called "Geographic Location Awareness" then it would not be possible for you to see any messages generated by the product, since it's plugin would be inactive and removed.

I think you've uninstalled the wrong product. Check again.

[mfyvie]

Ok, I've refreshed the installation file. Only 2 minor changes (no need to do anything if you've already installed!)

1. Added the following message during installation: Error: file includes/gla.php not found. Installation will not continue. This error is most likely caused because you did not follow the installation instructions and upload the required files first. I've also changed the require_once to include_once in the plugin. Hopefully this error message will make whoever realise that they need to read the installation instructions (hopefully!)

2. I added the following text to the instructions file:

People using multiple styles
----------------------------

If you are using multiple styles, you may have more than one "misc" directory for images. In this case you should also copy the flags directory to your other styles (under the "misc") directory. This allows you to use different sets of flags for different styles.

[projectego]

Awesome! Thank you very much for sharing. :)

[shamda]

I installed this and also installed the addon to show the countries and flags on my whos online page and it works great, except that a couple of isps do not show including mine! I use comcast in Florida and would think it would be in the database, but i guess it is not. Is there anyway to add isps that come up blank with the correct info for them?

[mfyvie]

I guess it would be possible to manually add IP ranges to the database by hand if you wanted to. What are the IP ranges in question?

[shamda]

I guess it would be possible to manually add IP ranges to the database by hand if you wanted to. What are the IP ranges in question?


Well my isp is 66.229.216.150 which is c-66-229-216-150.hsd1.fl.comcast.net . Pretty popular isp.

[steven s]

Another cool plugin might be to display one flag of each country currently view pages.

[mfyvie]

Actually, what I meant was the range you wanted added, not just the ip address.

Anyway, if we look up that address you gave in the ARIN (http://www.arin.net/whois/) database we see that it is registered to comcast as you say, and covers the following range:

66.229.0.0 - 66.229.255.255 (a class B range, a pretty big chunk)

Before we do anything we need to convert this to numerical format. This is pretty simple, we just do it like this for the first part of the range:

66 * 256 * 256 *256
+
229 * 256 *256
+
0 * 256
+
0

This give us 1122304000

Now we do the same for the end of the address:

66 * 256 * 256 *256
+
229 * 256 *256
+
255 * 256
+
255

This gives us 1122369535

So we want to assign addresses between 1122304000 and 1122369535 to the US. But wait - are you really sure that this whole address range is in the US? How are you sure? Anyway, since this is your own database and nobody else's, you can do what you like.

Use a tool (like PhpMyAdmin, or the SQL query function in the admincp) to look inside your database. Execute the following SQL command to give you any ranges inside the one you want like this:

SELECT * FROM ip2country WHERE ip_from <= 1122369535 AND ip_to >= 1122304000(note that I reversed the order of the high number and the low number).

We see that a single result is returned:

1122320960 - 1122320995 - only 35 addresses? In the middle of that range assigned to portugal? Probably a mistake.

Ok, so let's say you are absolutely sure that you want to add that big block in. You could make an SQL query like this:

INSERT INTO ip2country (ip_from, ip_to, country_code2, country_code3, country_name) VALUES ('1122304000', '1122369535', 'us', 'usa', 'United States')
Now you can use repair optimise table (in admincp) just for the ip2country table to rebuild the indexes.

Then you should be done. Anyone else can also use these instructions for another IP range if they like.

Some useful links:

http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/forum (is full of spam, and isn't very useful, but these are the official forums for the database)
http://www.arin.net/whois/ (for looking up IP address ranges)

And of course - read install.txt and developer.txt in the installation archive for links, etc.

[mfyvie]

By the way, if anyone is wondering if their OWN address is being found in the database, you can go to this page:

http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/

They look up your address and display the country. When I visit the site I see the details. If you visit the site and don't see your country come up, your IP is not in the database.

[meissenation]

Now we just need someone to make a plugin which will allow the admins to pick countries to ban and then have it dynamically ban anyone that registers with a certain country :D

[mfyvie]

Now we just need someone to make a plugin which will allow the admins to pick countries to ban and then have it dynamically ban anyone that registers with a certain country :D

The best thing would be for this mod (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=131852) to be extended to include support for GLA. Since that mod already exists, it does 90% of the functionality, it just doesn't support GLA. I've sent a PM to the author, but haven't heard back yet.

[TrIn@dOr]

Very nice, will u notify Country-IP-DB updates here?

[mfyvie]

Very nice, will u notify Country-IP-DB updates here?

Maybe, I can't say what will happen with that database in the future, but I may consider repacking it as a new version when there is a new database. I'm not sure how often database updates will come out. We'll just have to see what happens.

[TrIn@dOr]

Maybe, I can't say what will happen with that database in the future, but I may consider repacking it as a new version when there is a new database. I'm not sure how often database updates will come out. We'll just have to see what happens.

http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/node/view/6

Approximately one time per month!

[mfyvie]

Careful there - the forum post you are quoting is 3 years old. From the looks of that site it doesn't appear to be well maintained. The last update was in March, already 4 months old. I used this database because it was free and I didn't have to look too hard to find it. However, if anyone else finds a more reliable source for the database, I can look at switching over to something else. Most of these databases are unfortunately commercial.

[mfyvie]

I've discovered a very minor flaw.

Impact: If a user's IP isn't found in the database, GLA functions will be disabled for that user. For example, they won't be able to see the who's online list. Whenever that person loads any page on the forum, 1 extra query will be executed - for most people that wouldn't be the end of the world, but I have tried to make GLA as efficient as possible.

What you need to do: Download the .zip file again, you do not need to reinstall the whole package, just replace your includes/gla.php file that you uploaded earlier.

Why this happened: People not interested in the programmer's explanation may skip this next part - show's over folks.. When someone's IP address isn't found we write a null value to the session variable. We use isset() to later check if we've already executed the query, but if the null value is written to the database it doesn't come back on the next page load, therefore the isset() we expected to be true is really false. This is solved by writing an unknown entry to the database as ' ' (space character), GLA then trims anything that comes from the session table the first time it loads - effectively nullifying the variable again. Thereore developers can still use isset() before their GLA compatible plugins (to test if GLA is present at all), and != null to test to see if a country has been found.

What if I do nothing? Well it won't be the end of the world, but it might mean that some users (who have IP addresses that aren't in the database) might not be able to use features which rely on GLA. I'd therefore prefer it if everyone replaced their gla.php file - just to ensure no support issues come up in the future.

Who should do this? Anyone who downloaded and installed GLA before the date of this post. Anyone who has installed GLA after the date of this post can safely ignore this whole post!

[mfyvie]

For those of you who run the Proxy RBL on Registration mod, you'll be pleased to know that I've posted some info here (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1289436&postcount=168) on how to make this mod "country aware" using GLA.

[TOGUIMASTER]

Thanks for this ..

[Captain Kirk76]

Thanks for this.
Although it is a bit USA happy. Alot of people seem to get traced to the US. (I.E one of my German members is apparantly in the USA :p)

[mfyvie]

Thanks for this.
Although it is a bit USA happy. Alot of people seem to get traced to the US. (I.E one of my German members is apparantly in the USA :p)

Yes that can happen if the block was original allocated to a US company who then allocated parts of it somewhere else without that being recorded in the database.

If you know of any such errors you can also make a manual modification to the database.

[Captain Kirk76]

If you know of any such errors you can also make a manual modification to the database.
I wouldn't know where to edit the DB to fix the problem, lol :o

[mfyvie]

I wouldn't know where to edit the DB to fix the problem, lol :o

You would if you looked back one page in this thread, specifically post #24 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1285923&postcount=24). That will give you instructions to manually add IP ranges to the database

[Captain Kirk76]

Okay, thanks ;)

(Also, finally remembered to click installed :D)

[mfyvie]

I've just finished a verification script which will test many aspects of GLA and report whether they are correct or not. If something is not correct a text box will be displayed explaining how the problem may be resolved.

I believe this should make it much easier for people who install it to be able to verify their installation before asking for support. In fact, the script gives the sort of answers I might give them if they came to this thread for support anyway.

Those of you who already have working GLA installations may be interested to look at the script anyway. It will tell you whether you've installed the flags correctly for ALL of your styles, and if GLA is functioning correctly it will even give you a little search box where you can query any IP address you like to find out the country.

This file is called gla_test.php and is now included in the installation archive. It is designed to be run from your main forum directory, but you could run it from any directory you like. You can either redownload the archive to get this file, or I've attached it to this post with a screenshot. Unfortunately the screenshot gets automatically scaled down, so it may be hard to read.

I hope you all enjoy this test script and find it useful.

[Nick0r]

This is a great idea - I've been looking for something like this so that I can geo-target my newsletter to people in specific countries. I don't suppose there is any planned plugin support for this in the future?

[mfyvie]

This is a great idea - I've been looking for something like this so that I can geo-target my newsletter to people in specific countries. I don't suppose there is any planned plugin support for this in the future?

Well this module will support any such application you'd like to build with it. It depends what you mean by "plugin support" - the support for a plugin is there, but someone still has to write it - this mod simply takes a lot of the hard work out of writing such a plugin.

Are you talking about the "Generate Mailing List" function in the admincp? If so, you should be aware that the file that makes these mailing lists has no hooks at all, so such a modification would have to involve file edits, not plugins.

Version 1.1 of GLA will make it even easier for developers to write code in the own plugins, for example - you could take the registration IP address and pass it through a function and have the country data returned. Only 2 lines of code needed to test any IP address.

[Nick0r]

Hey,

I was thinking more along the lines of integration w/ Commbull or VBGazette (newsletter products).

[mfyvie]

If those products could import data from another source, it would be fairly easy. All you'd need is a bit of code that spits out your usertable, or specifically the email address, registration ip, and username and adds the country name at the same time. You could then import the data into excel and do whatever you wanted with it.

[Cyburbia]

Free IP to country database (CSV) that claims daily updates.
http://software77.net/cgi-bin/ip-country/geo-ip.pl

[mfyvie]

Free IP to country database (CSV) that claims daily updates.
http://software77.net/cgi-bin/ip-country/geo-ip.pl

That is awesome, thanks for that. The timing is excellent as I am getting version 1.1 ready. This database looks much better than the one I am using in 1.0, and they seem to certainly try to keep it up-to-date!

There are extra country codes used however, meaning that there could be some issues with flags not being available.

I'm also thinking about things like a cron job for auto downloads and updates each week, as well as a list of exceptions, for the case for example when some of your users post from a company where the proxy server is in one country, but assigned to the address space of the head office (e.g. USA).

The accuracy issue will become even more important when I release the flag in the postbit mod that I've just finished writing.

[mfyvie]

I've attached an updated database file, which I reformatted from software77.net (http://software77.net/cgi-bin/ip-country/geo-ip.pl) (see above post for details). Future versions of GLA will support this file format without modifications, but for the moment I had to make a custom version so that 1.0 would import it.

I believe that this database should be better than the one which is currently bundled with GLA 1.0. I'd be interested to hear comments from people who reported some problems with the existing database - maybe this updated one improves the situation?

How to upgrade your database? Easy, just follow the upgrade instructions in the original install.txt file included with the GLA zip file. Updating should take less than a minute.

I'm also going to need a bit of help from you guys. There are new country codes added to this version of the database, namely these countries:
AP - non-specific Asia-Pacific location
CS - Serbia and Montenegro (Formally Czechoslovakia)
YU - Serbia and Montenegro (Formally Yugoslavia) (Being phased out)
EU - non-specific European Union location
FX - France, Metropolitan
PS - Palestinian Territory, Occupied
UK - United Kingdom (standard says GB)
* ZZ - IETF RESERVED address space.

I need some assistance from other people for the following tasks:
Check if the existing flag set contains all flags in the ISO-3166 list (in other words, are there other countries missing from the current flag set?)
Check that the current flagset actually represents the flags of the country codes (some flags may have changed)
Draw (or copy and adapt) any new flags missing from the current flag set, and possibly extend the flag sets linked here (http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/node/view/91).The idea would then be to put these extended flag sets up for download at software77.net (http://software77.net/cgi-bin/ip-country/geo-ip.pl) to allow everyone using their free database (not just GLA users) the chance to get flags to match the most current database. If you enjoy GLA and think it is useful, I'd be grateful if you could help me out with any of the above tasks.

[Cyburbia]

There's a very tasteful flag set at http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/flags/ . It incldes all the missing countries, although users will probably need to rename europeanunion.png to eu.png, and make a copy of uk.png as gb.png.

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/420/flagspreviewlargexl5.png

[mfyvie]

Nice link! Flags look good, but for the default set (packaged with GLA) I really need something to match the size (height) of the current set. The reason is that the height of the flags matches the various IM icons displayed in the postbit, so it looks good. It also doesn't look too bad when stacked next to text in the default size.

[bada_bing]

This would be a nice addition if Stonyack updates the vbgoogle hacks

[lamb8068]

i have an error.HOw can i fix it .thanks
http://pcremoteserver.com/bug/error.JPG

[mfyvie]

i have an error.HOw can i fix it .thanks


You have more than error, you also have a suggestion from the test script about what steps you should take next to fix the error. I'm guessing that you've already followed the advice given in the big red box about how to possibly resolve that error? I can make no other suggestion other than the ones I programmed into that test script.

So if you look inside the session table, were the extra columns added? Did you try to uninstall it and reinstall it?

[lamb8068]

You have more than error, you also have a suggestion from the test script about what steps you should take next to fix the error. I'm guessing that you've already followed the advice given in the big red box about how to possibly resolve that error? I can make no other suggestion other than the ones I programmed into that test script.

So if you look inside the session table, were the extra columns added? Did you try to uninstall it and reinstall it?
I don't know how to uninstall it...can you help me?:confused:

[mfyvie]

I don't know how to uninstall it...can you help me?:confused:

You uninstall it the same way you uninstall any other product - with the uninstall option. Please refer to the vbulletin manual here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/product_manager

[yaoren]

Thank you

**Installed**

[Nathan2006]

Thank you mfyvie

Installed

[military-space]

I installed this mod to be able to use the Country Display for Who's Online mod.

When I access the gla_test.php page, it shows one flag for my themes, but not the other. ALL flags are in their respective folders and are web accessable.

The error I get shows:
Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in http://**mysite**/images/misc/flags/
Testing to see if the flag from country "zw" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in http://**mysite**/images/misc/flags/
Visual check - two flags should be visible: Andorra Zimbabwe

The zw.png flag shows up, but the text still says it failed. I can open the urls to any of the flags in the browser and display them. Any suggestions?

[mfyvie]

Military-space,

I can't think what your issue would be (unless there is something you overlooked). You are telling me that the files exist, and you can reach them through your browser directly, but the test script complains that they don't exist? Please view the HTML source of the output of the test script and double check that the paths are correct to the files which don't show.

If you still can't work it out, then please send me a screenshot of the problem via PM, as well as a copy of the HTML source that generated it.

[meissenation]

Any chance of this coming to postbit?

[mfyvie]

Any chance of this coming to postbit?

At the top of this page in post 46 I said:

The accuracy issue will become even more important when I release the flag in the postbit mod that I've just finished writing.

However, it will have to wait until I'm 100% happy with GLA 1.1. Could take a couple of weeks.

[Cyburbia]

Yikes! Some of the country names in the database are wrong!

The biggie: - Serbia and Montenegro was formerly in Yugoslavia, not Czechoslovakia

[mfyvie]

Which database are you referring to? The one that ships with GLA 1.0, or the new one that I posted a while back? Starting with GLA 1.1 (not yet released) I'm using the new database and stripping out all those extra comments so that there will be use the country name. Those comments come from the registrars, and in many cases they can't spell either (formally rather than formerly for example).

[racechick20]

Installed and eagerly awaiting the postbit mod you have just finished. Thank you!

[BigDog56]

EDIT: Figured it out.

[mfyvie]

EDIT: BigDog56 - since you've now edited out your original question, my message below doesn't make sense to anyone, but I'm going to leave it there anyway.

ok, I'm going to assume you have actually copied the files into the correct location for your additional styles (as per instructions) and that you've run the test/verification script to test, and that that it has reported to you that it can't find the flags for the additional styles, and that you've followed the tips that the test script gives you to help you resolve the problem? In that case - at which stage do you think is the problem is occurring and which steps have you taken to try and resolve it? So far we've had very few cases like this that haven't been correctly picked up by the test script, so I'm curious.

[tekguru]

Installed here too and working perfectly!

I must admit thoguh I too am looking forward to the new version and that PostBit mod!

Any ETA at all?

[mfyvie]

Installed here too and working perfectly!

I must admit thoguh I too am looking forward to the new version and that PostBit mod!

Any ETA at all?

It's basically done, but I have to enhance GLA itself a bit first (version 1.1). It's in the queue - I have some other work to clear first. I'd rather make sure everything works the way it should first time rather than have to fix problems later.

[tekguru]

Not a problem, we'll all have to learn to be patient :)

[tekguru]

Any further update on the progress at all?

[mfyvie]

Any further update on the progress at all?

Sorry, have had some personal issues and finding it difficult to focus on programming tasks or dedicate the time to it that it needs.

GLA 1.1 is probably about 50% complete at the moment, though I haven't worked on it for some weeks. Right now the newer update is automatically installed and updated each week. There are more internal functions allowing other developers to make use of some more stuff (though I note that there hasn't exactly been a rush of people writing applications that make use of GLA).

Probably the biggest component that I have yet to add is a separate table which stores admin defined exceptions to the current database. These will be entered via the admincp, but it needs a form, a way of looking at the existing entries, deleting entries, etc. Could end up being a bit more work than I bargained for. Also - there are 20 or so missing flags in 1.0 that need to be redrawn to fit with the current flag set. So far nobody has volunteered to do this work, so I'll probably have to end up doing this myself which will take additional time.

So sorry - can't give you a date for this yet.

[tekguru]

Not a problem I understand completely, as I know how life can interact at times adn get in the way :)

Good luck with it as and when you can find the time to continue :)

[steven s]

Does anyone get this 404 error in their logs?
Cannot find 'images/misc/flags/.png'
Otherwise GLA and flags in the who's online is fine.

[Mrdby]

well my flags show up...BUT i get the error

Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in http://>>>>.net/forum/images/kirsch/misc/flags/
Testing to see if the flag from country "zw" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in http://.....net/forum/images/kirsch/misc/flags/


I uploaded the flags under my mis for all styles..and only 1 style worked. Any ideas?

[mfyvie]

Does anyone get this 404 error in their logs?
Cannot find 'images/misc/flags/.png'
Otherwise GLA and flags in the who's online is fine.

Use the test script to troubleshoot the problem

well my flags show up...BUT i get the error

Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in http://>>>>.net/forum/images/kirsch/misc/flags/
Testing to see if the flag from country "zw" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in http://.....net/forum/images/kirsch/misc/flags/


I uploaded the flags under my mis for all styles..and only 1 style worked. Any ideas?

File permissions? directory permissions? ownership? Basically those flag files aren't being found in the location where they are expected. I'd recommend double checking it. Each style has a path set for the misc images (in the admincp), that's the same path where you need to add your flags directory.

[steven s]

Use the test script to troubleshoot the problem
The test script reads
Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in http://www.my domain.org/forum/images/misc/flags/
Testing to see if the flag from country "zw" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in http://www.my domain.org/forum/images/misc/flags/

When I try to view it in my browser I get
You don't have permission to access /forum/images/misc/flags/ad.png on this server.
But it's there. I have no problem with /forum/images/misc/flags/us.png
Permissions are the same for ad as it is for us.

But still, looking at my latest error log I see
public_html/forum/images/misc/flags/.png <--- dot png. Is that normal?

[Mrdby]

Use the test script to troubleshoot the problem



File permissions? directory permissions? ownership? Basically those flag files aren't being found in the location where they are expected. I'd recommend double checking it. Each style has a path set for the misc images (in the admincp), that's the same path where you need to add your flags directory.

ok go to my acp and go where?

[steven s]

ok go to my acp and go where?
I think . . .
Styles & Templates --> Style Manager --> StyleVars
Scroll down to Miscellaneous Images Folder

[Mrdby]

I see it now..now what?

[steven s]

I see it now..now what?Be sure it's correct.
I use the full url for my settings.

[Mrdby]

i added the full url and added misc/flags and the images on my test page stopped showing up..and when i removed the flags..they cam back and still have the not found error.

[steven s]

i added the full url and added misc/flags and the images on my test page stopped showing up..and when i removed the flags..they cam back and still have the not found error.

You don't want to add /flags. Just want to be sure /images/misc is correct.

[Mrdby]

they are..did you see the link i pmed you?

[Mrdby]

Fixed!!!!! Thanks!

[Tact7626]

installed. am loving the gla_test.php page. very VERY informative and helpful.

i installed this to use your coutry display for who's online thing. looking foward to it. :D

[legionofangels]

* smacks himself *

lol, I read this multiple times to post here on database issues and I still put it in the other thread.

Anyways did we switch databases for the GLA system or do I just look at the install.txt file to see how to make changes to IP addresses and such?

Here was my comment in the other thread:

It didn't really answer mine. I've been online at work which is a different city and different internet, and now at home, and my flag never shows up. lol

I don't get it, it's like Colorado, Denver. How could that not be in the database?

Anyways do you suggest adding the proper IP block or what do I do? Reinstall?

[ETDC]

This is ace! Thanks.

I may have missed it, and apologies if so, but has anyone written a 'show in postbit' mod?

:)

[legionofangels]

Ok, after looking through this thread I see that you have switched to a different database with the ZIP File mid thread. I've dl'd it and will check it out. Hopefully that should fix my issues with my own flag not showing up.

Aside from that I'm wondering on the Country Titles; is that information pulled from the GLA as well, or is it something we can edit? Meaning is it coming from a database of sorts, or can we name countries whatever we wanted, if we for some reason wanted to correct an error? < mainly hypothetical here

[ssean15]

I installed the package, and edited the lines. How do I get into the Preferences, and get it running> I can't seem to find it anywhere in the Admin CP.

[mfyvie]

This is ace! Thanks.

I may have missed it, and apologies if so, but has anyone written a 'show in postbit' mod?

:)

Yes, I have. It will work with the next version of GLA (1.1), but both mods are currently not released because I haven't finished them yet - the real world keeps getting in the way.

Ok, after looking through this thread I see that you have switched to a different database with the ZIP File mid thread. I've dl'd it and will check it out. Hopefully that should fix my issues with my own flag not showing up.

Aside from that I'm wondering on the Country Titles; is that information pulled from the GLA as well, or is it something we can edit? Meaning is it coming from a database of sorts, or can we name countries whatever we wanted, if we for some reason wanted to correct an error? < mainly hypothetical here

Your own flag may still not show up using different databases. These listings are not 100% perfect and depend very much on registrars recording this information correctly (they often do not).

The country titles are recorded in the database itself. If you wanted to write a script that did a replacement of the country names you could go ahead and do that, but the country names are written in their by the registrars themselves. In GLA 1.1 I've written some code which strips out comments which are sometimes inserted after country names in brackets. I did this because I often saw unnecessary explanations for certain countries - often with spelling errors.

I installed the package, and edited the lines. How do I get into the Preferences, and get it running> I can't seem to find it anywhere in the Admin CP.

GLA itself has no preferences, however other mods that use GLA might. It does come with a test script however. Please refer to the instructions at the top of this page, as well as the documentation that comes with GLA to understand how this works. Please remember to click "Install" if you'd like to get support.

[Wildthinks]

is there any update for ip-table? because some ip's are dont resolve...thanks:up:

[mfyvie]

is there any update for ip-table? because some ip's are dont resolve...thanks:up:Please read through the previous messages on this thread and you'll find a database update.

[Fire112]

Help with me this is not indicated in wiw

[chuckrobbie]

Well my test shows up ok
BUT
Even though i have all the flags loaded in the correct places, it is not picking them up!!!

Any idea why? It loaded the DB successfully etc...just the flags themselves have errors :(

Is it because I have 3.6.8?

Also nothing showing up on my pages :(

[Fire112]

I have everything installed, however it is not indicated in wiw. Help

[legionofangels]

Well my test shows up ok
BUT
Even though i have all the flags loaded in the correct places, it is not picking them up!!!

Any idea why? It loaded the DB successfully etc...just the flags themselves have errors :(

Is it because I have 3.6.8?

Also nothing showing up on my pages :(

It's not because of 3.6.8, I have that and they work on my who's online screen.

For some reason and I would have to ask my coder we have the flags in a main section, and then in every style's Misc folder in the FTP.

------------------------------

I have noticed 2 days in a row now someone from the European Union at my site. I didn't have the flag for it, but have installed

eu.png

In my flag folders and so hopefully it should pick that up from now on. I just need an EU person to stop by so I can see it.

[clothahump]

Same problem here, error stating flags are not there but I know they are.
http://www.tropicalfishforums.co.uk/forum/gla_test.php

[clothahump]

Another problem.

Some users from the UK get an American flag???

[Ronseal]

Much like clothahump above I've installed the 'Country Display for Who's Online' mod and although it works perfectly I've got a lot less than a 98% accuracy rate from this GLA plug-in. I've got over 15% of the users I know to be based in the UK appearing as USA.

Is there a newer update of the 'ip-to-country.csv' than the '1.0 (07.07.07)' initial version downloadable in this Mod?

Many thanks.
Ron

[athlon64bit]

Another problem.

Some users from the UK get an American flag???

Probably AOL users showing up on an AOL proxy.

[clothahump]

Thanks, I realise where the problem lies so it actually makes GLA useless, uninstalled until it works properly.

[Bladinium]

hello me have problem http://www.brainless-wow.net/gla_test.php


I check everything and it's good, but why this error? The flag is not displayed in the forum rather than ...

[Silvio]

working on 3.7.0? can I install on my reinstalled board?

ty

[Marco van Herwaarden]

*** Staff note: The author of this modification has passed away in a diving accident (http://www.englishforum.ch/announcements/20529-mourning-loss-friend-leader-innovator-genuinely-nice-guy.html). We wish his family all strength in dealing with this traggic issue. ***

[DiverTree]

*** Staff note: The author of this modification has passed away in a diving accident (http://www.englishforum.ch/announcements/20529-mourning-loss-friend-leader-innovator-genuinely-nice-guy.html). We wish his family all strength in dealing with this traggic issue. ***
:( :( :(

[PGAmerica]

I am getting an error when running gla_test.php
-------------------------------
Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forums/images/misc/flags/
Testing to see if the flag from country "zw" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forums/images/misc/flags/
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/Visual check - two flags should be visible: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/
Style: Style1

Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forums/images/misc/flags/
Testing to see if the flag from country "zw" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forums/images/misc/flags/
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/Visual check - two flags should be visible: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/
Style: Style2

Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forums/images/misc/flags/
Testing to see if the flag from country "zw" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forums/images/misc/flags/
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/Visual check - two flags should be visible: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/
Style: Style3

Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forums/images/misc/flags/
Testing to see if the flag from country "zw" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forums/images/misc/flags/
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/Visual check - two flags should be visible: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/
Style: Style4

Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: OK - Flag file found in correct directory
Testing to see if the flag from country "zw" is present: OK - Flag file found in correct directory
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/Visual check - two flags should be visible: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/
-------------------------------

As you can see, it is not finding some of the files. The issue is that all of these styles are using the EXACT same misc folder. How is it that the test sees the ones in one style, but not the others?

[kompakt]

I got a similar error when I ran the GLA check but I didn't have the images in my other styles. So I made a symlink to the flags directory and the visual checks worked out just fine but the text did not say ok. I don't think it really matters.

Works fine so far on 3.7

[PGAmerica]

The weird thing is that all the styles use the exact same images folder. So how can one style pass the check and the rest fail?

I posted my question over a week ago. I don't think this hack has any support at all.

[dartho]

If you read the previous page, and also the hack description you'll see that "The author of this modification has passed away in a diving accident (http://www.englishforum.ch/announcements/20529-mourning-loss-friend-leader-innovator-genuinely-nice-guy.html)" Kinda puts things into perspective ...

[PGAmerica]

Ouch. I guess it does. Thanks for the info.

Thank kind of info should be placed in the first post. Maybe the vbulletin.org admins should do this.

[PEPITO69]

Soory if i put this in the wrong place, but im shocked. I was here getting information about this plugin and this next sunday i will do my first "deep" dive to 25 meters, i'm a beginner diver and VB admin, and you can imagine. I was trilled before, now i thing i will not do it.

[r5e]

I've just granted permission to another coder (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/member.php?u=211414) who has agreed to take over the code from Mark's mods (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/member.php?u=190317) (like this one) and keep them up to date and free to all, which should be good news for all of you who use his mods and allow his legacy to continue.

Robert Fyvie

[helpmehost]

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in /home/public_html/forum/gla_test.php on line 177

any idea please?

[helpmehost]

no reply better to uninstall this

[nedo_a]

can anybody tell me how to translate names of the country
for expamle i want to translate
Bosnia And Herzegovinia to Bosna i Hercegovina

[K8TEK]

This works fine in 3.8.0 Beta 1

I noticed the IP tables haven't been updated in over a year, so I updated them if anybody wants it.

Updated via info obtained from http://software77.net/cgi-bin/ip-country/geo-ip.pl

[Smitty]

This works fine in 3.8.0 Beta 1

I noticed the IP tables haven't been updated in over a year, so I updated them if anybody wants it.

Updated via info obtained from http://software77.net/cgi-bin/ip-country/geo-ip.plThanks! Upload to main forum directory, correct?

[Smitty]

My business connection is down and I'm on dialup so it will be a while before I can try to update this - What do we do? Upload the ip-to-country.csv file and then re-import the 'product' xml file?

[K8TEK]

Correct

[Smitty]

Thanks! My cable connection came back up about 20 minutes ago so I'll do it right now.

Again, my thanks for posting the updated data!

[jonnyjonny_uk]

I'm having problems with this installation. I've followed all the instructions but when I run the test it's telling me the flag images are not uploaded but they are?

Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forum/images/misc/flags/

Any ideas please.

Thanks

John

[Adam21]

I'm having problems with this installation. I've followed all the instructions but when I run the test it's telling me the flag images are not uploaded but they are?

Testing to see if the flag from country "ad" is present: Failed - Flag file not found in /forum/images/misc/flags/

Any ideas please.

Thanks

John

Open your FTP client and make sure again u uploaded the files in that folder to be uploaded accordingly to your forum directories.;)

[jonnyjonny_uk]

I did try again Adam but it kept coming up with the same error. I'm going to pass on trying again for now and give it another go from scratch and see what happens.

Thanks

John

[Rik Brown]

This works fine in 3.8.0 Beta 1

I noticed the IP tables haven't been updated in over a year, so I updated them if anybody wants it.

Updated via info obtained from http://software77.net/cgi-bin/ip-country/geo-ip.pl

Thanks for the .zip attachment of the updated .csv database. -- Rik

[Dimoks]

Hi
Install mod... http://www.kharkovforum.com/gla_test.php
All ok

Add in template postbit_legacy code
<img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/flags/$session[country_iso2].png" alt="$session[country]" />

All ok but... mod display always my contry flag! :D:D:D
Please help me add in postbit code for user country flag %)

[OldSchoolDSL]

Installed and working

4.1 PL2

edit: Seems to fail on 4.1.1 beta though

[FortressGamers]

Installed and working

4.1 PL2

edit: Seems to fail on 4.1.1 beta though

did you install the original one posted in this thread, or an updated?

I am running vB 4.1.0

[RedKilla]

I installed it and this is what happens when i run the test

Testing to see if country column is present in the session table: Failed - country column not present
Tip: The country column is usually added by the installation routine to session table automatically. You may wish to inspect the session table to investigate why this column may not have been added. Perhaps the installation routine did not complete? You may wish to uninstall GLA are reinstall it - checking that the installation routine completes sucessfully.

Number of current sessions updated for GLA: Failed - no sessions using GLA. Maybe wait a few minutes or refresh this page
WARNING - you have critical errors in your installtion. Please re-read the instructions and ensure that you have followed them correctly. If you are sure that you have installed everything correctly, you can visit the support thread for this modification and report which tests have failed if you are unable to resolve the issue yourself.


Not Sure what to do here I am running vBulletin™ Version 4.1.3

[Dan49]

The last IP - country database update was done on December 2010 http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/book/print/5. Does anyone know where to get a more recent compatible database, and how to install it if it's different than the one provided by the coder of this mod'?