Forum Display Enhancements - GLA - Geographic Location Awareness for vBulletin

*** Staff note: The author of this modification has passed away in a diving accident. 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 developers

Is 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
• Check Proxy RBL on Registration (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 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

[Adam21]

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by 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

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!
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]

Originally Posted by OldSchoolDSL

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'?