AppThemes GeoReg captures valuable geographic information about users who register on your site. It’s completely transparent and works behind the scenes without any setup or configuration. We promise you’ll be in awe with how powerful, yet simplistic it is!
For a live demo, visit the MaxMind website. It will show your current location based on your IP address using the same lookup as this plugin.
Want to test drive the plugin first? Download the free GeoReg Lite version from the WordPress plugins directory! Or if you prefer, install the lite version directly from within your WordPress admin area. Just go to “Plugins” => “Add New” => and search for “GeoReg Lite”.
Feature Highlights
- Works right out of the box. No configuration!
- Supports any WordPress theme (that uses the WordPress registration page or hooks)
- No code or theme template files to edit
- Captures the IP address, country, region (state), city, postal code, latitude, longitude, and more
- Adds geographic columns to the wp-admin user screen
- Includes embedded Google Map (in your language) on the user edit page
- Supports any language (text translation and .pot file required)
- Dedicated forum-based support provided by our customer service team
Advanced Features
- Works with AppThemes’ themes
- Works with both WordPress standard & Multisite
- Works with BuddyPress
- Works with bbPress
- Supports both http and https websites
- Portability. WordPress export includes all data
- Clean, professional, well commented code
- Includes WordPress filters for developers
- Uses the WordPress API, hooks & filters for quick processing
- No hardcoded select statements or custom database tables
- Uses the WordPress user meta table
- Very small footprint. Uses the MaxMind js so there’s no large dat files to include
There are countless ways to leverage geo information. Here are a few ideas: **
- Personalized web content
- Region-specific advertising and offers
- Easily calculate VAT or sales tax
- Block users based on region or IP address
- Conduct traffic analysis & data mining
** Note: GeoReg only gathers and stores geographic information when new users register. You will need another plugin or custom development in order to leverage the items mentioned above.
Installation is a breeze. There’s no configuration required! Just upload and activate the plugin. The next time someone registers on your site, you’ll be able to view the geographic information on their user profile (admins only).
How does it work?
When a new user registers on your site, it captures geographic information (based on their IP address) behind the scenes. This information is then stored with their user account so you can view and use it later.
What are all the fields captured with GeoReg?
The fields captured along with an example are shown below. Please note that not all fields are always included for each user registration. It depends on the IP address and whatever data MaxMind can provide.
- IP Address – 123.456.78.90
- Country Code – US
- Country Name – United States
- City – Overland Park
- Region – KS
- Region Name – Kansas
- Latitude – 38.9593 (used for Google Maps)
- Longitude – -94.6811 (used for Google Maps)
- Postal Code – 66212
- Area Code – 913
- Metro Code – 616
How accurate is the data?
Since the plugin is dependent on the IP address and the MaxMind database, you can view the accuracy by country on their website. In some cases the data will be from the ISP of the user who registers on your website. In other cases, visitors will use a proxy or VPN to mask their true IP address so the data will not be accurate in those cases.
How does this plugin gather geographic information?
It uses the free MaxMind API which is one of the most popular and accurate IP geolocation databases available. There is no charge to use their service as long as the following link is included somewhere on your website.
This website uses MaxMind's
GeoIP JavaScript Service
If you prefer not to include the link, an attribution-free license can be purchased for $10 per million lookups from their website.
Is the geographic information visible on the author page or user profile edit screen?
Nope. It’s only viewable and editable to those with admin and/or the “edit_users” WordPress capability.
How can I test that it’s working?
Logout of WordPress and then register a new account (from wp-login.php, wp-signup.php, etc). Once the account has been confirmed, log back into WordPress as an admin and edit the new user. You’ll see a section at the bottom called “Geographic Information”.
Does capturing this data break any privacy laws?
Not that we’re aware of. The plugin uses the MaxMind free database services and works by looking up publicly available information based on the users IP address. It therefore inherits the MaxMind terms of use agreement.
If you’re a developer and want to make changes to the plugin you can using filters. As with any WordPress theme or plugin, the best way to understand how it works is by viewing the code.
Here are the available filters:
- geo_fields – to modify or add new fields
- add_geo_fields – to modify the hidden fields and javascript output on the registration page
- show_geo_fields – to modify the output on the wp-admin edit user profile page
Got suggestions for other filters or actions? Let us know with a comment below!
== Changelog ==
1.0 – Dec 5, 2012
- initial release
6 Comments
4/11 Joined
Will this populate geodata on existing users or only new registrations from the point the plugin is installed going forward?
Also, what’s the difference between lite and full versions?
490 Comments
7/10 Joined
@surfcrf450, it only works with new user registrations. We plan on adding an option to update existing users in the next release.
6 Comments
4/11 Joined
disregard the second question about lite vs full. I saw the answer on the wordpress.org plugin site or disregard the entire thing I should have posted it on the forum page.
6 Comments
4/11 Joined
I purchased GeoReg a few days ago. My Classipress site isn’t quite finished so I install it on my Vantage site to test it out. It works great! It provides outstanding “spam and scam” insight. It’s amazing!
The best part is that it will only get better once I use it on Classipress. I had been using another classified software and it was a constant battle keeping up with all the fake users and scams. GeoReg is my new secret weapon that will help me spot irregularities and react to them.
490 Comments
7/10 Joined
Glad to hear it surfcrf450. Thanks for sharing your success story!
4 Comments
4/13 Joined
Hi, I want to have user location maps on each users public profile page (not on their ads). Is this possible with this plugin?
cheers
john
4 Comments
4/13 Joined
Any help with this please? Really urgent.
119 Comments
11/10 Joined
@johnegg, By default, the information is only viewable and editable to those with admin and/or the “edit_users” WordPress capability. Adding a map to the users profile page using this information would require customization of the theme on your part. Thanks.
I would like to use this with a coupon script, is there away to get this gep location info before they register so the website can assign the proper ads to the potential customer?
119 Comments
11/10 Joined
@Heath, As per the information in the plugin description above “** Note: GeoReg only gathers and stores geographic information when new users register. You will need another plugin or custom development in order to leverage the items mentioned above.“. So, by default, it’s not going to collect the data until the register first. Thanks.
Thank you for answering that. I guess what I was trying to figure out is how difficult would it be to switch how this plug-in works to gather the geo-location info and if that was even possible to use without registration? I need something that reads the geo-location when a user clicks on a certain page on my website. Thanks