In this tutorial, we show you how to find a location using an IP address, with the following technologies :

1. Spring MVC frameworks.
2. jQuery (Ajax Request).
3. GeoLite database.
4. Google Map.

Review the tutorial’s flows

1. A page with a text input and button.
2. Type an IP address, and clicks on the button.
3. jQuery fires an Ajax request to Spring Controller.
4. Spring controller process and return back a json string.
5. jQuery process the returned json and display the location on Google Map.

1. Project Directory

Review the final project directory structure, a standard Maven project.

2. Project Dependencies

Declares Spring frameworks, Jackson and geoip-api dependencies.

	//...
	<properties>
		<spring.version>3.2.2.RELEASE</spring.version>
		<maxmind.geoip.version>1.2.10</maxmind.geoip.version>
		<jackson.version>1.9.10</jackson.version>
	</properties>
	<dependencies>
		<!-- Spring Core -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
			<version>${spring.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<!-- need this for @Configuration -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>cglib</groupId>
			<artifactId>cglib</artifactId>
			<version>2.2.2</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
			<version>${spring.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
			<version>${spring.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<!-- ip to server location -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>com.maxmind.geoip</groupId>
			<artifactId>geoip-api</artifactId>
			<version>${maxmind.geoip.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<!-- Jackson -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
			<artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
			<version>${jackson.version}</version>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>
	//...

3. Spring MVC + GeoLite

Get the location with GeoLite database.

package com.mkyong.web.location;
public interface ServerLocationBo {
	ServerLocation getLocation(String ipAddress);

package com.mkyong.web.location;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.URL;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import com.maxmind.geoip.Location;
import com.maxmind.geoip.LookupService;
import com.maxmind.geoip.regionName;
@Component
public class ServerLocationBoImpl implements ServerLocationBo {
	@Override
	public ServerLocation getLocation(String ipAddress) {
		String dataFile = "location/GeoLiteCity.dat";
		return getLocation(ipAddress, dataFile);
	private ServerLocation getLocation(String ipAddress, String locationDataFile) {
	  ServerLocation serverLocation = null;
	  URL url = getClass().getClassLoader().getResource(locationDataFile);
	  if (url == null) {
		System.err.println("location database is not found - "
			+ locationDataFile);
	  } else {
	  try {
		serverLocation = new ServerLocation();
		LookupService lookup = new LookupService(url.getPath(),
				LookupService.GEOIP_MEMORY_CACHE);
		Location locationServices = lookup.getLocation(ipAddress);
		serverLocation.setCountryCode(locationServices.countryCode);
		serverLocation.setCountryName(locationServices.countryName);
		serverLocation.setRegion(locationServices.region);
		serverLocation.setRegionName(regionName.regionNameByCode(
			locationServices.countryCode, locationServices.region));
		serverLocation.setCity(locationServices.city);
		serverLocation.setPostalCode(locationServices.postalCode);
		serverLocation.setLatitude(
                                String.valueOf(locationServices.latitude));
		serverLocation.setLongitude(
                                String.valueOf(locationServices.longitude));
	  } catch (IOException e) {
		System.err.println(e.getMessage());
	 return serverLocation;

package com.mkyong.web.location;
public class ServerLocation {
	private String countryCode;
	private String countryName;
	private String region;
	private String regionName;
	private String city;
	private String postalCode;
	private String latitude;
	private String longitude;
	//getter and setter methods

Spring controller, convert the ServerLocation with Jackson library, and return back a json string.

package com.mkyong.web.controller;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
import com.mkyong.web.location.ServerLocation;
import com.mkyong.web.location.ServerLocationBo;
@Controller
public class MapController {
	@Autowired
	ServerLocationBo serverLocationBo;
	@RequestMapping(value = "/", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public ModelAndView getPages() {
		ModelAndView model = new ModelAndView("map");
		return model;
	//return back json string
	@RequestMapping(value = "/getLocationByIpAddress", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public @ResponseBody
	String getDomainInJsonFormat(@RequestParam String ipAddress) {
		ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
		ServerLocation location = serverLocationBo.getLocation(ipAddress);
		String result = "";
		try {
			result = mapper.writeValueAsString(location);
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		return result;

4. JSP + jQuery + Google Map

When the search button is clicked, jQuery fire an Ajax request, process the data and update the Google Map.

<html>
<head>
<script src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=true"></script>
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <h2>Spring MVC + jQuery + Google Map</h2>
  <div>
	<input type="text" placeholder="0.0.0.0" id="w-input-search" value="">
	<span>
		<button id="w-button-search" type="button">Search</button>
	</span>
  </div>
  <script>
  $(document).ready(function() {
	$("#w-button-search").click(function() {
		$.getJSON("${pageContext.request.contextPath}/getLocationByIpAddress",
			ipAddress : $('#w-input-search').val()
		}, 
		function(data) {
			var data = JSON.stringify(data);
			var json = JSON.parse(data);
			showMap(json["latitude"],json["longitude"])
			$("#result").html(data)
		})
		.done(function() {							
		})
		.fail(function() { 
		})
		.complete(function() { 			
		});
	});
	var map;
	function showMap(latitude,longitude) { 
		var googleLatandLong = new google.maps.LatLng(latitude,longitude);
		var mapOptions = { 
			zoom: 5,
			center: googleLatandLong,
			mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP 
		};
		var mapDiv = document.getElementById("map");
		map = new google.maps.Map(mapDiv, mapOptions);
		var title = "Server Location"; 
		addMarker(map, googleLatandLong, title, "");
	function addMarker(map, latlong, title, content) { 
		var markerOptions = {
			position: latlong, 
			map: map,
			title: title, 
			clickable: true
		};
		var marker = new google.maps.Marker(markerOptions); 
  });
  </script>
  <br/>
  <div id="result"></div>
  <br/>
  <div style="width:600px;height:400px" id="map"></div>
</body>
</html>

5. Demo

IP Address : 74.125.135.102

IP Address : 183.81.166.110

References

1. Wikipedia : Geolocation software
2. GeoLite Free Downloadable Databases
3. Java – Find location using IP address
4. Google Map APIs
5. jQuery.getJSON