Do you want to unleash the power of business intelligence around IP addresses? Understanding where your audience is located is crucial for business success in today’s international world. Checking geolocation With IP API is a powerful way to connect digitally and learn more about your customers.
This blog post will show you how to make a Python Flask app that uses a tracking API to find the IP addresses of your customers. We’ll assume that you know how to use Python and Flask in a simple way. Let’s jump right in!
Table of Contents
What is IP API & why do I need this for my projects?
Tracking geolocation with IP API equips you with the insights to stay ahead of the competetion. This essentially means using IP addresses to pinpoint a user’s general location (city, country, region).
Why is this valuable for your projects? Here are just a few reasons:
- Content Personalization: Deliver targeted content, offers, or promotions based on a user’s location. Imagine a travel website displaying local tours in a user’s preferred language or an e-commerce store showcasing regionally relevant products.
- Time Zone Lookup: Automatically adjust time zones for events, deadlines, or live chat support to ensure seamless user experience across different regions.
- Language Redirection: Redirect users to the appropriate language version of your website based on their inferred location. This eliminates language barriers and improves user engagement.
- Currency Detection: Display prices or product costs in the user’s local currency for a more convenient shopping experience.
- Fraud Detection: Identify suspicious activity based on location anomalies. For example, a purchase attempt originating from a country far from the user’s typical location might warrant further investigation.
- Bulk/Volume Lookups: Handle high volumes of IP address lookups efficiently. Explore APIs that offer higher rate limits or consider enterprise plans for bulk processing needs.
To put it in one sentence, you can target specific audiences based on location and prevent fraud efficiently.
What makes IP API Special?
The ipapi is powered by one of the most powerful & scalable engines on the market – offering the #1 solution for all your IP intelligence requirements in one place.
The ipapi provides an easy-to-use API interface allowing customers to look at various pieces of information IPv4 & IPv6 addresses are associated with. The API has different parameters you can configure to have a different set of information.
Important Features of IP API
The API comes with a total of 3 available API endpoints, each covering a different type of functionality.
Standard Lookup
This is the core functionality of tracking geolocation with IP API – looking up a single provided IP address. You can create a user interface or integrate it into your existing application to allow users to enter IP addresses for location information retrieval.
Example API Request:
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https://api.ipapi.com/api/161.185.160.93 ? access_key = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY |
Bulk Lookup
This involves looking up multiple IP addresses at once. This can be useful for analyzing website traffic patterns or managing large datasets. ipapi business plan offer bulk lookups for handling high volumes of lookups efficiently.
Example API Request:
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https://api.ipapi.com/api/161.185.160.93,87.111.168.248,210.138.184.59 ? access_key = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY |
Origin Lookup
This involves identifying the geolocation with the IP address of the user currently making a request to your Flask application. You can access this information directly through the request.remote_addr attribute in Flask. This can be helpful for tasks like fraud detection or personalizing content based on the user’s location.
Example API Request:
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https://api.ipapi.com/api/check ? access_key = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY |
Learn more in our comprehensive documentation.
How can I start working with IP API?
Head over to the ipapi website and set up your subscription plan. You can select a Free plan to test it out.
How to use an IP API?
Head over to the ipapi website and set up your subscription plan. You can select a Free plan to test it out.
Example API Request:
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https://api.ipapi.com/api/161.185.160.93 ? access_key = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY |
Example API Response:
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{ "ip":"01.001.002.12", "type":"ipv4", "continent_code":"AS", "continent_name":"Asia", "country_code":"UZ", "country_name":"Uzbekistan", "region_code":"TK", "region_name":"Toshkent Shahri", "city":"Tashkent", "zip":"100080", "latitude":41.29949951171875, "longitude":69.24006652832031, "location":{ "geoname_id":1512569, "capital":"Tashkent", "languages":[ { "code":"uz", "name":"Uzbek", "native":"\u040e\u0437\u0431\u0435\u043a" }, { "code":"ru", "name":"Russian", "native":"\u0420\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439" } ], "country_flag":"http:\/\/assets.ipapi.com\/flags\/uz.svg", "country_flag_emoji":"\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddff", "country_flag_emoji_unicode":"U+1F1FA U+1F1FF", "calling_code":"998", "is_eu":false } } |
How do I integrate IP API with my Python Flask App?
Well, now the best part is starting! After signing up, you get your API access key. In this demonstration, we will integrate our Python Flask web app with IP-API. Moreover, this scenario demonstrates how a web API calls other web APIs.
But First, What is a Flask? Flask is a widely used Python framework for building online applications. The goal of this microframework was to provide a simple method for developing web services.
If you configure and protect your Flask API with authentication, this will be a Protected Web API.
How to set up Python Flask App with API for IP addresses?
Now, let’s get into action. Follow these steps, and you will have a working Flask API that calls to another API!
Open your PowerShell or Bash if you have configured it. Now type these commands.
After that, type these commands to create a virtual environment for your project. And run the virtual environment, then upgrade your pip.
In my case, I will be using VS Code to code, and we have already opened it with the “code .” command. And open your app.py main file.
Now copy these source codes to your app.py and use HTML web pages for data representation (you can find them from the GitHub repository)
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from flask import Flask, request, redirect, url_for import requests import json app = Flask(__name__) app.config['DEBUG'] = True @app.route('/') def index(): return '<h1>IP API with Python Flask</h1>' @app.route('/result/<string:accKey>/<string:ip>/<string:continent_name>/<string:region_name>/<string:zip_code>/<string:capital>') def result(accKey, ip, continent_name, region_name, zip_code, capital): return '<h3>Continent Name: {}; <br> Region Name: {}; <br> Zip Code: {}; <br> Capital Name: {}; <br> Your Access Key: {};<br>IP:{} </h3>'.format(continent_name, region_name, zip_code, capital, accKey, ip) @app.route('/ipapi', methods=['GET', 'POST']) def ipapi(): if request.method == 'GET': return '''<h1>Please fill out the parameters</h1> <form method="POST" action="/ipapi"> <input type="text" name="accKey"> <input type="text" name="ip"> <input type="submit" value="Request"> </form>''' else: accKey = request.form['accKey'] ip = request.form['ip'] req = requests.get('http://api.ipapi.com/'+ ip + '?access_key=' + accKey) response = req.json() continent_name = response['continent_name'] region_name = response['region_name'] zip_code = response['zip'] capital = response["location"]["capital"] return redirect(url_for('result', accKey=accKey, ip=ip, continent_name=continent_name, region_name=region_name, zip_code=zip_code, capital=capital)) if __name__ == '__main__': app.run() |
Let’s run our IP API based Flask Application!
Depending on your configuration on your system you can run your Flask web application with these commands:
Here is the result:
As you can see, it is easy to integrate ipapi from Python Flask or any other programming language.
For instance, Delphi offers cross-platform Low-Code development. With this, you can connect to any API in seconds and create a full-fledged application with a data layer in minutes. Moreover, you can customize your application as much as you like with the Delphi FireMonkey framework, which gives you access to low-code tools and Assembly language.
Head over and check out the full source code for the Flask implementation here: https://github.com/MuminjonGuru/IP-API-with-Python-Flask
Best Practices for IP Geolocation with Python Flask
Although tracking geolocation with IP APIs is useful, it’s important to use them in a smart and responsible way. When you add IP tracking to your Python Flask apps, here are some things you should always do:
Accuracy of the Data and Its Limits
- Know the limits of the API. Free tiers often have limits on the amount of data that can be sent or the number of requests that can be made. Check out paid plans for more accuracy and unlimited use.
- Think about the safety of users: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are two privacy rules that you should follow by users. Make it clear how people can agree that their location data can be collected and used.
- Data retention policies: Make clear rules for keeping data for saving and using location data. To protect user privacy, regularly anonymize or delete old data.
Handling errors and being strong
- Handle IP API errors gracefully: Set up error handling in your app to handle problems that might happen during API calls, like network errors or invalid results. Give people useful error messages.
- Check the user’s input: Before making API calls, check the IP address’s code to make sure it’s a real IPv4 or IPv6 address. This prevents unnecessary mistakes and makes the program more reliable.
- Consider alternatives: If IP geolocation data isn’t available or can’t be trusted, look into other options, such as user-provided location data or browser geolocation (with the user’s permission).
Advanced Considerations
- Caching mechanisms: Use caching techniques to save IP addresses that are looked up often and cut down on the number of API calls. This will improve speed and lower costs.
- Security measures: When you use IP address info, be aware of how it might affect your security. To lower risks, you might want to use IP reputation checks or scam detection tools.
- Regular updates: Follow changes in IP tracking technology and APIs that are available. Check out new features and think about upgrading your API to make sure you’re using the newest tools.
How can I get started getting business intelligence for IP addresses with ipapi?
Overall, the ipapi is the leading IP intelligence service, and it is utilized by millions of developers around the globe.
Ready to get started with IP Intelligence? Sign up now!
Conclusion
This blog post has guided you through building a basic Flask application that leverages geolocation with IP API. We’ve covered setting up the project environment, choosing an API, defining routes, making API calls, parsing data, and returning results. Additionally, we’ve briefly discussed error handling for a more robust application.
Here are some potential extensions you can explore:
- Adding a user interface: Create an HTML form to allow users to enter IP addresses for lookup directly in the browser.
- Visualizing location data: Integrate a map library to display the location of the looked-up IP address visually.
- Handling bulk lookups: Implement functionality to handle requests for multiple IP addresses at once.
Remember to refer to the documentation of your chosen IP geolocation API for specific details and functionalities. With a little customization, you can build a powerful tool for IP address geolocation using Python, Flask, and an IP geolocation API.
FAQ
What is the IP address of a Python Flask API?
An individual Flask application does not have a stable IP address. It operates on a device or server with an IP address.
The location of your Flask application deployment determines the precise IP address. In development, it’s usually accessible via http://127.0.0.1:5000/ (localhost) while operating locally. The IP address in production settings is determined by the server’s setup.
How to find someone’s IP address using Python?
Please Note: Unauthorized access to someone’s IP address might be immoral and pose privacy issues. Generally speaking, unless specifically approved, you should not track someone’s location.
Python cannot directly retrieve an individual’s IP address from the Internet. However, if an individual visits your website or interacts with your Flask application, you can get their IP address via the request object.
How do I find the IP address of a website in Python?
You can use libraries like socket or dnspython to perform DNS lookups and retrieve the IP address associated with a website domain name.
How do I find geolocation with IP API of an incoming request in Python?
The request object in a Flask application contains important information about the incoming request, including the client’s IP address. The request can be used to get this data function called remote_addr.
It is imperative to acknowledge that in cases when the user is using a proxy server, this may not consistently provide an exact indication of their IP address.
Supercharge Your Business with IP API
Ipapi is the #1 geolocation with IP API lookup RESTful web service in the market and is utilized by 30,000+ businesses worldwide. Because of its simple interface and performance, you can integrate with your project in several minutes.
Start using rock-solid IP data in your projects. By detecting your users’ real-time geolocations, you can provide personalized data and stream various ads to different geolocations. Ready to get started with IP Intelligence? Sign up now!
