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.

Hey,

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

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.

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.

I've attached an updated database file, which I reformatted from software77.net (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.

The idea would then be to put these extended flag sets up for download at software77.net 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.

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/img263/4...ewlargexl5.png

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.

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

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

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:

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

Thank you

**Installed**

Thank you mfyvie

Installed

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?

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.

Any chance of this coming to postbit?

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

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

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

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

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).

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

EDIT: Figured it out.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 :)

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.

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?

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.

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?

ok go to my acp and go where?

I think . . .
Styles & Templates --> Style Manager --> StyleVars
Scroll down to Miscellaneous Images Folder

I see it now..now what?

Be sure it's correct.
I use the full url for my settings.

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.