Redirect multi language site based on IP address

Question

I have a multi language site (using Transcribe addon) and I would like my users to be redirected to the correct language based on their IP address.

My goal is that when a user visits the root homepage http://www.example.com it will redirect them to http://www.example.com/en if their IP address is from the UK or http://www.example.com/fr is they are from France for example. But once they are on a language they are not redirected. I’ve tried the native IP nation addon but it didn’t seem to work very well so I’ve used the IP Geo addon at http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/ipgeo. But I’m having loads of problems with rewriting the homepage with htaccess, forcing the correct redirect with Transcribe, template parsing order etc… So I’m thinking of starting from fresh if anyone can give me suggestions on how best to do this.

Answer 1

Doing a similar thing for a site now and here's what we're doing:

1. Enable the IP to Nation module
2. Install and activate the Clive Zagno ipgeo plugin
3. Add code below to EE - we put it in a snippet snp_html-header
4. Set Transcribe to always use a language abbreviation in the url

{if "{transcribe:language_abbreviation}" == "es"}
  {if "{exp:ipgeo:code}" != "ES"}
    {redirect="index.php?ACT=23&lang=en" status_code="301"}
  {/if}
{if:elseif "{transcribe:language_abbreviation}" == "de"}
  {if "{exp:ipgeo:code}" != "AT" && "{exp:ipgeo:code}" != "DE" && "{exp:ipgeo:code}" != "CH"}
    {redirect="index.php?ACT=23&lang=en" status_code="301"}
  {/if}
{if:elseif "{transcribe:language_abbreviation}" == "fr"}
  {if "{exp:ipgeo:code}" != "BE" && "{exp:ipgeo:code}" != "FR"}
    {redirect="index.php?ACT=23&lang=en" status_code="301"}
  {/if}
{if:elseif "{transcribe:language_abbreviation}" == "it"}
  {if "{exp:ipgeo:code}" != "IT"}
    {redirect="index.php?ACT=23&lang=en" status_code="301"}
  {/if}
{if:elseif "{transcribe:language_abbreviation}" == "nl"}
  {if "{exp:ipgeo:code}" != "BE" && "{exp:ipgeo:code}" != "NL"}
    {redirect="index.php?ACT=23&lang=en" status_code="301"}
  {/if}
{/if} 

I hope this helps you or someone else.

Edit:

Expanding on this, if you have root access you can install the php5-ipgeo module and add a global variable. That way you don't need the extra two EE addons.

In index.php:

if (function_exists('geoip_country_code_by_name')) {
    $assign_to_config['global_vars'] = array('global_country-code' => geoip_country_code_by_name($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']));
}

Answer 2

I gave up with doing this with the Transcribe addon and did it client side instead....

// if at root homepage
if (/^http(s?):\/\/[^\/]*\/?$/.test(window.location.href)) {
    var url = "http://api.wipmania.com/jsonp?callback=?";
    $.getJSON(url, function(data) {
        switch (data.address.country_code) {
        case 'GB':
            location.href = location.href + "index.php?ACT=25&lang=en";
            break;
        case 'DE':
            location.href = location.href + "index.php?ACT=25&lang=de";
            break;
        }

    });
}